Where The Long Road Goes
by QuinKylar
Summary: Being displaced in time sucks. Having to watch the past six years of your life with no contact else risk of universe-ending paradox also sucks. But finally, Tails has made it back to the present. But six years is six years, his old life can't just snap back together. In the meantime, Sonic can't help but wonder what happened to him.
1. The Walker

**A/N: Ending spoilers for Sonic Generations.**

Respected characters belong to their respected owners, respectively.

_Where The Long Road Goes_

by QuinKylar

Prologue

The Walker

_- 0:0:0:4:24._

_Four hours. __Four hours__. To think all this will end where it all began._

_Four hours, twenty-three minutes._

_I've waited this long, four hours is nothing._

_I mean, all I gotta do is sit through the Time Eater event and the rest of the party and then_

_Well, that's where the Zero Mark is. 0-0-0-0-0-0._

_I'm not entirely sure what I should be feeling. Should I be anxious? Should I be calm? Should I be breaking out into tears because this is the first time I can talk to my friends in _six years?

_I don't have all the pages with me right now in my little tree—I'm camped out right above the party. They shouldn't see me in the upper part of the branches and there's enough of a wind to mask my scribbling but…_

_I've filled… what, seven-twelve notebooks over the years? Seven-twelve notebooks with this being the last in the series. Funny, I still got about twenty pages left in the thing; I really don't plan on filling those… not if I can help it._

_I'll be honest. Every so often, usually once a month, I read them all from the start. Yesterday was spent just reading through the hundreds of pages._

_All day, steaming at myself for being so dense, so stupid. Proud of myself when I pushed through the shock and horror of it all. Remembering so much and reliving it all again. Everything went in the journals for the sake of sanity coming out of it._

_I've come far, I think. I mean, it worked. I made it. Okay, sure. It's another hour to the party and when the Time Eater first shows up and another three after they all get back until Zero Mark. But then I'll finally be able to see what happened for myself._

_The Long Road of time will be over, and I walked every meter of it._

_I'm not angry with what happened. I'm not blaming anyone—it's not like anyone could do anything about it. Okay, I know I've been over that dozens of times over the pages. I just feel inclined on wrapping everything up in this one._

_I mean… it's over._

_It's the beginning of the end: nine figures just walked over the hill._

_Six years ago…. it's finally here. Party time._

* * *

><p><em>- 0:0:0:3:31.<em>

_It's hilarious. All this time I was up here, knowing what will happen and no one bothered looking up to check the tree. Not a single one of them looked up._

_Instead. Set up the table; deploy the cake, the silverware, the plates, the napkins; hand out the party-poppers; off he goes to lead Sonic over here._

_It's a waiting game. It's always a waiting game._

_I am shivering, I'm excited, I'm terrified. I've been waiting for this for a long, long time and the only thing that stands in the way is a temporal monstrosity. Nothing major, Sonic defeated it last time and the two of them can do it again._

_I just realized something. After Zero Mark… I don't know what's going to happen. After six years of knowing how everything played out—globally, of course—it all lead up to this moment. After Zero passes, I have no idea what's going to happen next._

_I'm getting an odd feeling of terrified respite in the idea. I've made fortunes knowing the stock market and lost most of them trying to cheat time only to fail; I've saved lives by evac'ing areas hit by Eggman, Perfect Chaos, the ARK, the Moon Meteorites, Black Arms; I watched everything happen from the safest and most secluded spot, silently screaming as watching was the only damn thing I could do._

_It ends at Zero and Zero is in_

_Here they come…._

_This is horrifying. Thank god, this is horrifying._

* * *

><p><em>+0:0:0:1:08<em>

_4:45 PM._

_With my friends around me, I write this last note._

_My name is Miles "Tails" Prower._

_Today, I was attending my best friend's eighteenth birthday party. During it, a temporal monster attacked and, during the following events, Sonic and I met past-versions of ourselves from six years ago—when I was six and he was twelve himself._

_With both Sonics teaming up, they defeated the monster and space-time returned to normal. We continued the birthday party, plus two special guests. When it came time for them to leave to their own time, the tem—time portal blinked and sucked me through to the time of old._

_After my first instincts of trying to find past Sonic (and myself), I created a temporal paradox that brought the Eggman of old from the void he was stuck in and wiped the memories of him and our past selves of the entire Time Eater event._

_Six years later, here I am again, attending the same birthday party. Only I'm eighteen now and, legally, Miles Prow_l_er—something Sonic can't stop laughing over. I'll be changing it back before long._

_Six years later, I'm finally among friends. __I can finally go home and sleep in the bed I only left this morning. And lastly__, I'm finally getting some of that cake_

"Oh, my goodness, isn't he adorable?"

Miles jumped, snapping his journal shut as he looked up. An elderly lady had taken the seat across from him on the train while he was absorbed reading his journal.

"Oh, he's just precious," She continued, leaning over to see the sleeping kit on Miles' lap. She looked up at him, if age was directly proportional to the lines on one's face, the old bat had to be a few hundred years old. "What's his name?"

"….um… Skye, his name's Skye. He's… uh, my little brother," Miles said, slowly at first. He ruffled Skye's headfur.

The little fox responded by swatting his hand away, shifting a little bit.

"Oh, he's just the sweetest thing," The old lady cooed, sitting back and reaching into her bag. Miles quickly rolled his eyes, his lip bit with a silent groan at himself. The lady pulled out a pair of crocheting needles, a square of crocheted yarn, and the yarn ball it was still attached to. She looked up at them, "I'm… oh—oh! I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting him to have two tails!"

"Um, y—yes. We, uh. We both do." Miles moved his into view.

"Would you look at that…. You know, I wasn't aware that Tails had family," she said casually as the needles started to loop the yarn onto the square. "Poor child."

Miles hesitated.

"…we're… cousins of his."

He bit his tongue and mentally cursed himself for the hole he was digging himself into.

She glanced up over her bifocals, "Oh, but you look just like him—both of you do."

"Er, that's… it get's…" Miles sighed. "Alright, let's try it this way. Our dad was Tails' uncle—his father's identical twin brother. Tails' mother also had a identical twin sister and…" Miles shook his head. "Except our parents met first and Tails' met through ours and it's a kinda a long story."

"Hmm love is strange, young man. But that means you're genetically identical to him, then."

"That's… an odd thing to say," Miles suddenly felt like his fur was being rubbed the wrong way. "…I—"

"Oh, ignore this old bag of bones," She laughed, waving dismissively. "I think of the strangest things sometimes and it just comes out before I can stop myself. My son thinks I'm fading but I've got enough kick in me to rip him a new one! " She laughed and held up the square, tilting it several times. "Does this look square to you?"

"Two more on the left and it will be."

"Eh, it's fine," She waved dismissively and started to finish the square. "I still need to edge the things. I still need twelve more for a quilt for the grandkids. I plan on it being a birthday gift for one of them but all kids want these days are those videogames." She sighed and put down everything. "You know, I've got a question for your cousin."

"Uh, we haven't talked in a long… he barely remembered me when I finally got a hold of him. I… don't know what happened to his parents but we… lost ours in the Black Arms attack. When we finally heard that our cuz was a hero we figured it'd be good to get in contact with him but… it's taken me this long to get enough together to get over here."

The lady's face fell, "I'm sorry to hear that…?"

"…Myles—with a 'y.' Don't ask, we're not too sure why our uncle named Tails 'Miles' as well. But… well…"

"Well, family is family. Tails has a good heart and is sure to help you both out."

Skye shifted again, burying his muzzle into one of Miles' tails.

"Yeah well… as much as I hate to admit it, that's the plan." He pulled his other tail over Skye. He nodded at the tike, "The little guy idolizes both of us—we had our reunion at Sonic's birthday party. He insisted on it. It was the best day we've had in a long while…" he drifted off as the train slowed.

"Now arriving at: Westopolis," The PA announced.

The old lady stood up, "Well, here's my stop. It's been wonderful talking to you, Myles. I hope your little reunion goes well. Maybe we'll be seeing you on these newspapers as well." She started laughing, "You know, maybe I'll send you the quilt for the little one."

Miles laughed himself, shaking his head, "No, that's not necessary, but thanks. But, uh, what was that question you wanted me to relay…?"

"Oh, it's… well, I lived here in Westopolis since I was your age. My little home stood through everything…. I was here for the Black Arms attacks and… it was terrifying." She shook her head and shuddered. "And then there's that Doctor Eggman and his attacks every so often. And his amusement park thing—I actually wanted to go there but now… well."

The station pulled up outside.

The lady picked up her things, "I just want to know. …many of us want to know… with Sonic and all his friends… why don't they put an end to all of it—make sure that that lousy Eggman won't attack again."

The doors opened.

"I've lived a good, long, blessed life, Myles," She said, a sadness in her eyes, "But I worry for my grandkids. All they want is the latest videogame. But they're growing up in such a violent and dangerous world and I can't do much but make these quilts and worry…. Forget what GUN says, Tails and Sonic and their friends are the only ones we can rely on in the grand scheme of things, but why aren't they making sure they it doesn't come back…? ...maybe you can ask them all that one day. For both my grandkid's sake and little Skye's as well. Oh, listen to me ramble, I got to get moving—Thank-you, Myles. It was nice talking to you." She smiled pleasantly one last time and nodded before quickly hobbling through the closing doors.

"Now leaving: Westopolis. Next stop: Mystic Ruins."

Miles stared out the window, blinking, then slowly looked to the small fox sleeping on his lap, blissfully unaware of everything going on.

Slowly, Miles opened his journal to the very last page of the book and grabbed his pen.

_I just had a talk with an old lady on the train back home. During it, I realized something._

_All this time, I've been worrying about getting to today—staying sane, staying out of sight, and staying alive. I was a bystander in time with nothing to do but wait and survive until this all ended. But now that Zero Mark has passed…_

_I dreamed of my life snapping back to the way it was... but now I see that that's not going to happen. Life… won't go back to the way it was._

_But now I know something… something that means I can't just be who I was. There's nothing much I could do about it._

_The normal everyday Joe can believe that I'm a long-lost cousin of Tails with a little brother—refugees from the Black Arms attacks from some far-off land, coming to live with Tails and start a new life here._

_He'll believe that Tails had disappeared on his way back from the party and that his friends and cousins are trying to find him the best they can until the time comes for them to stop._

_But. He will not believe that _I'm_ really him. I'm Tails—that I got stuck in a time warp and had to wait six years for the present._

_He _will not_ believe that the little fox kit sleeping in my lap is a six-year-old version of me._

_No one._

_I was worried so much on walking the Long Road and surviving it that I never considered where it actually went—where it actually goes._

_I certainly wasn't expecting this._


	2. Apprehension

**I thought I got the "Long Road" metaphor for the 'living through the past to the present' thing from Dr. Who. Turns out the phrase I was actually looking for was "Slow Road." Bah, close enough for rock and roll, right? It's more symbolic to Tails like this anyway.**

1

Apprehension

_THUD._

"Ah, _ow._" Sonic seethed and rubbed his forehead, recoiling three steps back.

Lean, thin, built for the speed he prided himself on, and blue, the eighteen-year-old hedgehog was an icon. One store in every mall sport versions of his red-and-white running shoes for kids to adults, two have his quills in hat form, and another has his white gloves.

He wasn't sure how he felt about it all.

He tried the doorknob again and sighed before knocking on the door. "Tails, you in there?"

"…give me a sec!"

Sonic sighed and shook his head softly as the lock turned, "You don't usually lock your door, what's up?"

The door opened, "Stuff happened," the fox answered, grinning slightly. Sonic blinked and looked up. "Long time no see, Sonic."

"Ha, ha," Sonic shook his head, "Sorry. I'm…." he shrugged and sighed. "You're a little taller than you were two days ago, Tails." He held out his hand to about his shoulder level.

"Sonic, I'm Miles," the fox laughed, "The little me is Tails, remember? …was I really that short back then?"

Six years older than the fox Sonic was expecting, Miles was just a bit taller than him as well, a few inches more if you counted the ears. The yellow orange of his fur had darkened so it was mostly on the orange side but the white stayed the same. His eyes were still blue, still had his three tuffs of bangs above them, and the two tails behind him still flicked aimlessly on their own.

He wore a vest more red than orange, lined with pockets but free of most of the stuff he had on it yesterday. The goggles he had on his head weren't there either; neither was he wearing the utility belt. His white gloves had brown fingerless overlays on them. The brown overlays, in turn, ran back over the wrist and up his forearm, ending short of the elbow and secured in place by flat steel loops. His brown boots were worn in, but in fairly good condition.

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic meekly laughed along. "…I'm… —you were twelve yesterday morning. I mean. Everyone is a little… you know."

Miles shook his head and smiled sadly, ears drooping slightly, "Yeah… it's gonna get some taking used to. Myself included…" he shrugged. "Ah, whatever. Come on in, mini-me's probably stealing my breakfast again."

"Am not!" Another fox's head popped around Miles'.

"Hiya, Tails. Long time no see."

"Heya," Tails waved, then frowned at Miles. "Older me's a meanie." Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"I kinda scared him after he woke up," Miles laughed lightly. "Can't really blame him—he slept on the train ride back and all of last night. He was a little lost in the house and I spooked him."

Tails scowled at Miles, "Still a meanie."

Miles bit his lip, but still chuckled, "I'm being scolded by my younger self—why do I find this funny."

A dozen years younger than Miles, Tails looked more like the fox Sonic knew two days ago. White on the muzzle, stomach, and tips of tails and light yellow-orange fur mostly everywhere else, the little fox kit was far shorter than either of them. He wore plain white gloves and the red-and-white running sneakers, as he would for years.

Sonic glanced between the two of them, then sighed, "Tails stop picking on Tails."

"Absurd, isn't it?" Miles shrugged and closed the door behind Sonic, locking it. Sonic raised an eyebrow at him.

"Stuff happened," Miles repeated, almost glaring for a second, "Nevermind." He led Sonic towards the kitchen "I haven't actually eaten yet—I forgot how much of a vacuum I was."

"Hey!"

"That you were," Sonic said. "You ate faster than I could run."

Tails landed with a thump in his seat at the table, crossing his arms and pouted.

Sonic sighed, "Okay, stop with the cheap shots, Tails—_Miles_." He scoffed at himself, shook his head, and sat down. "I _am_ going to get this right one of these times. But still, if I remember back… he's not used to taking them in stride yet."

"No sweat," Miles shrugged. He ruffled Tails' headfur as he passed, "Sorry. That was a swing at me there, not you." He sat down, "Bad habit with…." he looked up, Tails was munching on the bacon from his plate. "Silver. Nice grab."

Sonic clapped and laughed, rocking back on his chair, "Now I remember how much of a little pickpocket you were."

"I still got it," Miles shrugged, "I just haven't really needed to rely on it. Neither do you anymore," he poked his fork at Tails. He looked back at Sonic, "But anyway, what's up?"

"Nothing much," Sonic shrugged, letting Miles get a few mouthfuls. "Just swung by to check on you guys." He nodded towards Tails.

"There isn't really anything to check on yet," Miles said, "Tails only woke up an hour ago, I laid down a few house rules to keep us both sane, and we—rather, _he_—had breakfast." He threw an amused glare at Tails.

"It's good," Tails chimed in, grinning at Sonic. "And I helped!"

_Toaster,_ Miles mouthed. _He ate it all._

Sonic smirked slightly, "Well, hope you have fun with parenthoo—"

"_Noooo_," Miles said slowly. Sonic laughed. "Very funny, Sonic. We're operating on the same system we did: big bro and little bro."

"I figured," Sonic chuckled, "Couldn't help it, though."

"Ha-ha," Miles rolled his eyes. "Come-on, Sonic. It's a bit of a jog here _just_ to check up on us, what's up?"

"Well," Sonic started, laughter dying out. "Alright… Vanilla plans to do her usual write-up on Eggman's latest grand scheme to put in the newspapers and such."

Miles finished the last of his eggs and shrugged, "Cream told her, I take it," then off to Tails, "Vanilla's Cream's Mom." Tails nodded. Miles started spinning the fork through his fingers.

"Yeah, she summed up Eggman's deal fairly well to clue Vanilla in." He laughed, "For once. Blaze helped, I think. But then they got to…." Sonic drifted off and waved his hand. Miles put down his fork.

"Yeah… about that," He looked away.

"She tried calling you but she told me the line—"

"Disconnected," Miles interrupted, then laughed. "Uh, _whoops_."

"'Whoops?'" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Miles looked away. "Old habits die _really_ hard—I, uh. …usually unplug the landline until I jury rig something to route it to my cell. Don't look at me like that, Sonic. If anyone found out who I really was—"

"Paradoxes are _not fun_, yeah yeah," Sonic summed it up. "We all know your new catchphrase. But seriously, this is your own home."

"One I haven't been in in eons," Miles said flatly, but softly. He coughed and, louder, "The nostalgia or that 'finally back home' feeling—I'm getting none of it. I… barely remembered where I put the plates, nevermind what I was doing downstairs back then. It's just more… more of a place right now."

"'Back then' was yesterday."

"Sonic, there's a gallon of milk in that fridge that I bought six years and change ago. The expiration date says sometime in the next three weeks or whatever—I still bought it six and change ago. Time Travel …isn't nice. A lot of things happened."

"Also your new catchphrase," Sonic rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Well, that's what Vanilla... …she wants to know your story—that running diary of yours. There's six years of a side of the world that we haven't seen in there, yeah? She thinks bringing that to light will put things in focus on what happened."

"To who?" Miles scoffed, "No one is actually going to believe that I'm really Tails."

Sonic shook his head, "If you say that, why'd you hide all the time then?"

"The very basic connection of there being two Miles Prowers in the world might paradox it out of the universe. There's only one…." He looked over at Tails, the little fox slowly and steadily shrinking down in his chair. "Okay, there are still two, but this is different. This is not a time where I know what's going to happen—I've hit Present. They can say, 'Hey, he looks like Tails,' about either of us and the only thing that will happen is odd looks. They can even ask us if we're related or actually Tails and the universe won't lay an Eggman like it did the first time."

Miles shook his head and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms and looking through the archway back to the living room, out the window on the opposite wall, and at the sky.

Sonic sighed, "Miles, that's the point. You're still Tails. You're no longer under that paradox threa. ….you believed me when I said I got sucked into a book—both times! You all did. I let Vanilla type it up because I thought it was funny and would, at the very least, make a good story. And I still get people double-checking with me if they actually happened."

"What do you say?" That was from Tails. Miles smirked slightly.

"'It doesn't matter if I believe it did. So, do you believe it?'" Both Sonic and Miles answered. Miles continued, "Funny thing is that there's already an entire fictional franchise about Sonic—"

"That's not me," Sonic said in sing-song as he scratched his ear, a slight pain of annoyance in his voice but a smile on his face.

"Entire fictional franchise about a Sonic _clone_ that also has a rip-off character of each and every one of us. Depending on who's writing, the comics are actually quite entertaining. Still doesn't mean we didn't try to shut it down."

"Didn't realize you read the comics."

"They make great time-killers; I kinda grew fond of them. Unfortunately, my expy is annoying as all get out in canon."

"Hmm…"

Miles narrowed his eyes, "So's yours, Sonic. The better stories have nothing to do with the main three characters. Shame they're the rarer ones."

"Which is why Vanilla want's your story," Sonic said. He laughed, "Tails, _I_ want to know what happened to you. We all believe you—it's kinda impossible not to. Give everyone a reason and a fair deal of them will buy it. All I'm asking is just give them a chance for the truth."

Miles muttered something, eyes distant out the window again.

"Sorry?"

"It's a bit late for it," Miles repeated, "On the train ride home—there was another passenger sitting across from us. Mini-me had fallen asleep and snored through the entire thing. She noticed his tails though and... I panicked. I lied and said we were Tails' long-lost cousins—that we lost our parents in the Black Arms attack and made our way over to live with Tails." He scoffed, "I'm Myles—with a 'Y'—and he's Skye, my little brother."

Tails looked at Miles, tilted his head and frowned. Miles glanced at him as Sonic crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair again.

Miles stretched his neck, "She believed it. Everyone knows that Tails doesn't know where his family went, and I only implied that I was from someplace _very_ far away. It's not that big of a jump and honestly not that hard to believe. Everyone lost someone in the Black Arms attacks; if I told the old bat the truth she might have had a stroke. Sonic, it works and it solves both sides of the problem. Me, and him." Tails shrunk in his chair.

Sonic narrowed his eyes at Miles, "How is he a problem?"

"No, you don't get it," Miles scowled, "Okay. It's one thing if I just did the time-warp—Mini-me throws an entire wrench into the works—so I got sent back six years while he didn't—"

"Makes perfect sense to me," Sonic butted in.

"Yeah, but. No. Listen," Miles fumbled, sighing harshly, "Sonic, the question is: How can both a Past self and a Present self be existing in the same time reference."

Sonic slowly blinked, then said flatly, "…I don't think that's a question anyone would think of right off the bat, Miles. And if they do, so what? You don't need to answer that question."

"We're going to have to—it wouldn't make sense. I _saw_ him with you six years ago—we tell my story and people will look at him oddly. Sonic, if this was just about me, I'd tell everyone in a heartbeat. But…" Miles sighed, watching as Tails shrunk further down into his chair. "Our two stories combined is just too much. Listen… _I _don't even know how this works. And that's saying something."

"That isn't your call. Everyone has to know."

Miles scoffed, "'Not my call.' This is my life here, I'm the one to make the call."

Sonic sapped his chair forward harshly, "We can't just lie about this stuff, Tails! If we start lying, then what kind of heroes are we? People need to know the truth—it's our duty. There's no way they can trust us with their lives if we start lying!"

"It's _my_ call, Sonic," Miles said softly. "I'm not going to do it." He looked out the window again, "….I… am not going to do it." He sighed, long and silent, before closing his eyes. "You can't force me. It's my story. You're not getting a word. Final."

Sonic fumed for a second before he huffed, "So after all this time… you waited and waited for this moment to come… and you don't care about it anymore? You're just going to let it all go?"

"Yes."

Sonic leaned forward over the table, "Everything you worked for, everyone you know and love, everything. You are going to let it die."

Miles didn't move, "It's actually not that hard… funny."

"_Tails_—"

"Stop. Calling…. Stop calling me Tails. He's Tails—the time portal grabbed the wrong one and no one knows what happened to the one that got sent back. I'm… just some fox. Some cousin no one's heard of. Unimportant."

Sonic frowned and glared, but Miles still hadn't moved. Sonic stood up, "Alright… if you got too used to hiding away, I understand. Like you said, you need as much getting used to this as much as we are. Sorry if it's just too much for you to take. ...I'll see you around, _Myles with a 'Y.'_"

He turned and headed out of the kitchen.

Miles didn't move. Tails meekly glanced at Sonic before looking up to Miles.

"…why aren't you…?" Tails started to ask but faded. He looked back at Sonic as he opened the outside door. After a few seconds, it closed. "You're… not friends with Sonic anymore?"

"I haven't seen Sonic in a long time," Miles said, voice barely above a whisper. "But he's still my best friend. …at least I hope he is."

"Then why don't you listen to him? …what he always tells me—y—us?"

"…Sonic's more stubborn than the one you knew. He doesn't exactly think things through most of the time. Millions and billions of people reacting to—"

"That's not what I meant!"

Miles looked down, blinking at Tails' outburst. The little kit was standing up in his chair, looking at him with slightly wet eyes, shaking slightly.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-I-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"You actually did walk away. You never actually _literally_ walk away from anything. …I underestimated you."

"Myles, with a 'Y,'" Sonic nodded gruffly at the horizon as he looked down the tracks.

Miles sighed silently, nodding to himself before glancing around. Not many people took the 9:45 train back to Westopolis, or further to Station Square. It was either the 8 o'clock, or Noon and they came back on the 3 or 5—the rest of the train platform was empty.

Miles drummed his fingers on the book he was carrying. Sonic ignored it.

"…journal number one," Miles finally said. "It covers the first two months. …or what's left of it does." He flipped through the pages, stopping every so often to run a hand down the frayed remains of ripped out pages. "I was… pretty upset about the entire thing. It wasn't until… I think about half-way into the third that I stopped ripping things out and just left them in. 'course, by then…. Well… I kinda accepted when I was. Other things were going on but…"

Sonic didn't move.

"Sonic, you're right, okay? I _was_ hiding too much. As the years went by and I grew, my fur darkened, lightened again, so on, I came up with tricks to disguise myself. Everything from holographic skins to tying my tails together. I'm… not too sure what you're reading from me, but…" He sighed. "You read me from what I used to be—yesterday, you would have nailed it right on the head. You think I'm terrified to be with everyone again—that-that I want to just go back into obscurity. ….so did I, honestly."

Sonic still didn't move, Miles scowled at himself.

"Mini-me called me out—it's not that, it's that… I've had about three identities… maybe four, depends on if they took me seriously. Two of those… yes, I do wish I can go back and live them out—damn it… I'm terrified to be _me _again." He huffed harshly. "I just don't want everyone to look at me again and… and say that I'm a freak. I should be twelve, but no. I'm eighteen and don't act it."

Sonic turned around, "Glad you realized it."

Miles scoffed at himself, not meeting Sonic's eye, "So you did know—why didn't you just call me out yourself?"

"I'm not the one to tell you."

"Well, since it was Tails, it's still self-realization," Miles shrugged aimlessly. "Alright, well. …angst and me being the idiot—per usual— aside. Sonic, here's the book." He held it out, finally making eye contact. "Just don't… give it to Vanilla just yet. I've got copies, but this is the original. I want to talk to her myself before we start all this. One way to cure this thing is commit to it and not allow myself to stop it. Can you do that for me? Oh, and don't show anyone else it. Not yet. Just you, a'ight?"

"Okay," Sonic nodded, giving a reassuring smile while he took the book, "Still, it's gonna to take her a few months to write the thing, another few to edit. Then you got to read it, so on and so forth. It's probably gonna take a year until it gets out there. What's the plan until then?"

Miles laughed, "I have no idea—I hit Present, remember?"

"Catchphrase number three, but it's my favorite," Sonic shook his head, but smiled. "Well, it'll take a week before the article's written and everything's about the party is set in stone. 'course, as you know, gossip travels faster. I still think you're overreacting to the entire thing."

Miles rubbed his ear, "I think I took Tails' appearance as an excuse to overreact—I-I jumped on the opportunity of hiding behind him. Huh." He laughed quietly at himself, looking off down the tracks.

Sonic looked on curiously as Miles' expression grew distant, slightly warping in annoyance at nobody. Eventually, the fox sighed, " I still think that both Tails and me in the same time reference is going to screw over the minds of some people. That… and…"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "And…?"

"Well, we still have potential for a para—" Sonic groaned loudly, wiping his face with his free hand. "No—let me explain. This one— I've made some enemies. Most under the other identities, but there's a handful who know me without them. We go and say, 'Hey! There are two Tails now—the one who got stuck in the time-stream and his six-year-old self.' …ever heard of the Grandfather Paradox?"

Sonic blinked, "Okay, now I see what you're talking about."

"Anything happens to him, it happens to me—half the reason I'm trying to protect him. Like I said, I'm not sure how it all works out. Maybe there's another paradox that resets everything—I don't remember any of this happening when I was him."

"Maybe there's nothing to remember yet—"

"Don't start," Miles said flatly. "Good god, don't screw with my mind with the expanding time theorem—let's paradox ourselves out of existence later. Let's run with the cousins thing for now—if anything, we'll say that we were holding off until all the facts were straight and so on. I'll call you later, and yeah, I'll reconnect my phone." He glanced off awkwardly, "Anyway, thanks, Sonic. You… really have no idea how great it is talking to you again. I'll see you around." He took a few steps backward, waved, and turned to go down the staircase.

"See ya 'round," Sonic waved after him. He looked down at the journal. After a second, he ran over to the railing, "Oh, hey! Miles!" The fox looked over his shoulder. "Never be afraid to be yourself! You start doubting—they win."

Miles smiled, nodding slightly. "And once they win, you won't be anyone anymore. You'd be whatever they wanted you to be, and you'll never find yourself again."

"I never said that."

Miles shrugged "A little addendum I added on. Kinda forgot it all, but yeah, I remember—what do you think Mini-Me guilt-tripped me with?" Sonic laughed slightly but got cut off by the Train announcer before he could say anything. "There's your train, Sonic. I'll see you around."


	3. Spin and Take

**Older Tails' appearance is based off his adult counterpart in the Archie comic series. I personally haven't read a lick of them, but hey, it's an actual character design with a minor tweak.**

**Also, this story's a bit less straightforward than most of the stuff I write.  
>Sonic's side of the story is poised as a mystery- him trying to figure out and track Tails' movements over the six years. Tails, on the other hand, just tries to cope with having his life back and dealing with his younger self <strong>for the moment**. I keep writing myself into corners or say _too_ much. Pacing is something I'm working on with this story.  
><strong>

2

Spin and Take

"Basically, he's pretty upset about the entire thing," Sonic said flatly, holding up the book, closed, for Vanilla to see.

"You've read it all, already?" Vanilla asked, teacup in hand.

"There's a lot of torn pages—there honestly isn't that much to read," Sonic sighed sadly, putting the book down on the table. "But that's all you're getting from me. Tails specifically stated that this was for my eyes only."

"That's good," Vanilla started, pausing to sip her tea, "He called and told me to remind you in case you forgot. Yes, he called your hand."

"Well, he hasn't lost that," Sonic said flatly as Vanilla chuckled. "He say anything else to you?"

"Just that he'll stop by tomorrow with the little Tails—he said he'd be by today, but he wanted to show Tails the workshop," she frowned as she drank her tea.

"…something was off?"

"He said you had gotten on the train about ten minutes before he called…"

"Well, it's Tails," Sonic shrugged, "He always tries to get things out of the way before he gets caught up in his lab. And, well, he'll get caught up in it."

Vanilla shook her head, "There was a tone of definitiveness in his voice. It seems he has already made a decision. …he made it awfully quick. I just worry how much of a say the little Tails had in the matter."

"MiniTails is smart, he won't let Tails overreact. He's called him on it once already."

"I'm not worried about him overreacting. From what you told me from your visit… I think he's panicking."

Sonic drank from his own teacup, "Then it's very pristine panic he's got going on there. …but yeah, the lack of it is his tell… I've seen him worse, but not much. Eggman ejecting me outta the ARK that time was probably the worst—he went ballistic on Eggman. …I think that's why Eggman's stopped messing with him… maybe."

Vanilla nodded, "It wouldn't surprise me if he's been rehearsing for this moment. Going through all the motions, his little talks, getting his facts right and getting you all to believe him…. Little Tails has him reeling but he won't show it. Also… he lapsed into an accent over the phone but caught himself immediately. I couldn't place it, but I recognized it from somewhere."

"He did say he'd taken on other identities. To hide under, I mean," Sonic shrugged.

"Indeed," Vanilla mused before standing up, collecting the tea set. "Tails is a smart boy. Even if he overreacts, he knows how to take care of himself."

Raised by a prominent family and inheriting the large fortune that came with it, Vanilla the Rabbit's etiquette was reflected by the elegant lavender and crimson dress she wears. In her large family mansion, she raised her daughter Cream mostly by herself, her husband dying from cancer when Cream was only a few years old. Calm, collected, and the writer of several popular novels, Vanilla was more than happy to help out her daughter's friends. They had, after all, saved both her and her daughter from Eggman before. She was a good judge of character.

"Facts here, let's not turn Tails into this mysterious hero, sent back through time to correct wrongs that he doesn't know anything about…. I'm going to stop talking before I give you more ideas for your novels."

Vanilla laughed over her shoulder, "This is Tails we are talking about, he would have done what you would have done. That said…"

"What would I have done if I was in his shoes," Sonic nodded, "…honestly, I don't know. I'd find everyone first, like he did. But after the paradox… I mean, him just meeting himself back there caused Past-Eggman to appear again! I don't know what I would have done. I would have figured something out, but," He shrugged, "I really can't remember everything and everywhere we went back then. I just remember it taking us weeks to figure out where the first Death Egg landed." He opened the cover and flipped through a few pages. The first journal was him going through—"

"A-hem."

Sonic snapped the book shut, "He doesn't say much."

Vanilla returned to the table with a refilled teapot. She poured herself a cup. Sonic shook his head politely.

"I guess we'll just have to wait for him to tell us," Vanilla said, breathing in the scent of the tea. "Meanwhile, I have a basic write-up of the events that happened yesterday. Between you, Cream, Blaze, and Silver, I think I have most of the Time Eater incident. I'm waiting on Tails to start on what happened afterwards."

Sonic nodded, "Sounds reasonable. …so Blaze dragged Silver here?"

"Yes, he's still asleep in one of the guest rooms," Vanilla looked up in the general direction of the room. "Apparently, there's a time-zone difference between our world and theirs and he's not very good at adapting." She returned to her tea, "Blaze, however, had woken up an hour or four ago and is outside in the gardens meditating with Cream."

"Meditating, with_ Cream_."

"Well, when I last checked with her, Cream had fallen asleep again. I think she tried to mimic Blaze but nodded off. Cheese certainly did."

"That's more like Cream," Sonic laughed slightly. "But I take it you want me to go over the article."

Vanilla smiled pleasantly, "If you would be so kind."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door banged.

"Come on, wake up."

"Oh… come on, Blaze. Do you know how _nice_ these beds are? Two more hours."

Blaze scoffed, and opened the door. "It's thirteen-fifty—by _our time._"

"One more hour then." The pillow went over Silver's head. He waved his hand and the door closed on its own.

Blaze scoffed again, looking at Sonic, "You know, he reminds me of you when Marine found that hammock."

"It was a nice hammock," Sonic shrugged. "Shame she couldn't figure out a way to get into it without flipping it. …alright, let me try something." He took two steps away and half-turned away from the door. "Yeah, sorry Miles. He's still asleep. …no, he doesn't seem like he'll get up anytime soon. Yeah, you'll miss the train if you wait. Okay, see you tomarr—"

The door opened and the top half of the head of a silver hedgehog poked out halfway up, a pillow pressed against the back of his head. Silver's head and the pillow were covered in the cyan aura of his telekinesis.

"Miles is here?" Silver said, eyes clearly awake and exited. "Oh, hey, Sonic. You said Miles was here?" He glanced between Sonic and a glaring Blaze. His face fell. "He's not here, is he?" His head drifted away and the door closed quickly.

"Silver," Blaze said flatly.

The door opened and Silver landed in the doorway. With the flick of his hand, he let the pillow fly back to the bed. "I'm up."

As tall as Sonic and as his color scheme true to his name, it was clear that Silver wasn't exactly a hedgehog from around here. If not by his telekinetic powers, then by his appearance. Five of his spines formed a sort of crown on his head, originating from his forehead and flaring out around, his ears poking out between them. His other two spines sprouted off the back of his head, much longer than Sonic's. His gloves had circles of cyan on the palms and were secured with golden cuffs. His boots, sleek black, white, and cyan were also clamped on by the same golden cuffs.

He looked between the two of them, "I'm taking there's a reason Sonic's here and it's not because I cheated in our race." Sonic blinked, "Hey, you still won by kilo's."

Blaze started walking towards the stairs.

Sonic rolled his eyes and followed the cat, "I'm trying to piece together what happened to Tails."

"Miles," Silver corrected, stepping in stride beside Sonic.

"Either or," Sonic groaned. "He's still Tails to me, always will. Anyway, he's… given me his first journal to read through and… well… there's not a lot there. It's mostly torn pages." He looked between the two of them, "From what I got from him yesterday after the party, his last attempt at a time machine had ended up with something to do with you guys…?"

"You could say that," Blaze mused.

"Instead of being a time machine, it took him to our world," Silver clarified happily. "Was with us for a few months before he went back. He was a blast to adventure with."

"You don't need to tell him that, Sliver," Blaze sighed. "Sonic's been friends with him for years."

"_Anyway_," Sonic butted in, "I'm trying to figure out what happened to Tails. It was difficult getting this one journal from him and I've got a feeling he's only going to give them to me one at a time. Meanwhile… somewhere along the way he ran into you two...?"

Silver shrugged, "Hey, I didn't realize that Miles was Tails until he showed up again."

"You did though, Blaze."

"I only made the connection when I saw him yesterday," Blaze said. She paused for a few seconds, "During the time he spent in our world, he didn't give any real clue on who he really was. Yes, he said his name was Miles. Yes, I thought he was actually Tails at first, but thought differently soon enough."

"But yes, he did speak of you, Sonic," Silver budged in, half-mimicking Blaze. He dropped it before her annoyed glance came, "But Blaze thought he was just another friend of yours she didn't know about."

"By which, he didn't act like the Tails I knew. Nor did say he was when I directly asked him," Blaze clarified. She was leading them outside into the gardens. "The Tails I knew was a thinker. Now... he's a bit more confrontational—a bit jingoistic. Frighteningly so."

"_Oh,_ yeah," Silver almost laughed. "He, uh, helped me out with a few of my missions. I think it was the second one that we got separated for a day or so and, when I met up with him again, he was having a small war with about twenty armed bandits over a small village. He saved the town without attacking them once. Thing is, I think he was recovering from a broken arm then—he's not a leftie, is he?"

Sonic blinked, "Well, that's… certainly something I wouldn't see him doing—broken arm or not. I guess he's got more guts than I took him for." He laughed nervously.

Blaze sighed, "I would have described him as having nothing left to lose." Sonic stopped laughing, she looked back at Sonic from the corner of her eye, "Looking back, it was probably from the disappointment of his time machine not working properly. All the same… he had gained something before he left… I'm not sure what exactly."

"Hey!" Silver huffed. "I'm his best friend. Uh, besides you Sonic. I'm just saying that he gained a few friends—I didn't mean to say I replaced you as…." He bit his lip and looked away.

"No-no," Sonic shook his head, "You two know him actually better than I do right now. That's why I'm talking to you. Do you know _when_—during the six years. Do you know at what time he was there…?"

"…about a year after you two were in our world—when we defeated Whisker, remember? The time-flow between our two worlds is about the same so, thus, about a year here."

Sonic nodded, "Okay, so that was about a year and a half, two years ago." He smiled and scoffed at himself, "…I'm going to need something to write this down in."

Silver laughed, "You're gonna need a journal to keep track of Miles' journals."

"And the general paper trail," Blaze agreed. She looked away. "Sonic, if you're not going to sit around and wait on Tails, you're going to need some way to keep track of all of this."

Silver glanced at her, "Well, Mrs. Vanilla writes things, right? I'm sure you can get a spare notebook from her."

"I'll get one lat—"

"Sonic, can you _really_ remember every clue you come across? It's a good idea to start writing everything down from the start, right?" Silver said. While his tone was helpful, Silver's upbeat tone had dropped away. It wasn't a question.

Well, it's still a good idea. He nodded and walked back.

When he was out of earshot, Silver turned to Blaze, "Alright, what's up now?"

"It's nothing really," Blaze waved him off. "I just feel that Tails has a few things he wants to tell himself. I feel like we're talking behind his back, something we both know he abhors."

"We're not betraying him, Blaze," Silver sighed. "I don't see how we can—I mean, we're helping Sonic piece together Miles's past. We both know him—we saw how much he freaked when he saw the little guy. No one else did because they don't know him like we do—they just saw him blink a few times and walk immediately up to him, trying to figure out what happened.

"They thought he was confused. I know him better. When he hides his panic that much, he's only going to get worse. Remember when his machine _broke_? He seemed to shrug it off, and the next thing he's going after the Sol Emerald Nega had, alone. Helping Sonic helps Miles. He just doesn't realize it."

Blaze nodded slowly, "You're right. We shouldn't keep secrets—"

"Woah," Silver said quickly, "That isn't to say there are things that Tails needs to tell Sonic himself. …neither of us knew why he was defending that enemy town from our _own_ soldiers when he clearly knew that a plague was being developed there for use against us. He wasn't infected by it, nor was he immune to it. No one in that village was infected either. Yeah, he stepped aside when I showed up but he was attacking _our men_ under his own free will. One's _still_ in a coma. Next to you, Miles is my best friend, but _that_ unnerves and terrifies me. Tell me that was the Tails you knew before then."

She sighed, "Tails was alone for a great majority of his life before he met Sonic, relying on his instincts to stay alive. He then buried them in science and reason, thinking it would help him if he could make things that change the world." She shrugged slightly, "Well, it half-worked."

Silver nodded, "He told you all this?"

Blaze looked at him, "In both the adventures the three of us had before, I never asked him about his tails; he had to be sure what I thought of him." She sighed and looked back at the patio doors as Sonic walked through them, spinning a pen in one hand and carrying a compact, dark orange book in the other.

"When Tails got sent back, he had to go back to relying on his instincts in order to survive again. Somewhere along the way, he just started acting on them and them alone. We'll never knew why Tails did it, because neither does he. He just acted on instinct, but he doesn't know what triggers it."

Silver blinked, "How do you know…?"

Blaze looked back at him, "He asked me yesterday," she shrugged. "In all that time, I never mentioned his tails to him and he had to be sure what I thought had of him. The lack of any comment made him uncomfortable and he rambles when he's uncomfortable."

"That's Tails," Sonic sighed, nodding as he walked back up to them. "So… but… uh, know what?"

"…something we'll get to in time, Sonic," Blaze answered before Silver could. "But you really should be speaking to Shadow."

"You don't think I know that," Sonic grimaced. "He was waiting for the warp to move- he almost saved Tails. ...he had to have run into Tails sometime. You two are just easier to find."


	4. Displaced

**Thanks for all the reviews guys! It really means a lot to me and helps me write.**

**In Sonic Adventure, Tails' second plane comes out of a hanger in the cliff side. I always assumed he had a huge lab dug into it. **

**Anyway, as alluded to by Miles when he talks to Sonic, having two Tails makes specifying which one is which a chore. I'd like to call both 'Tails', but we're sticking to the convention Miles thought up whenever the two of them are in the scene despite what the other characters call them.  
><strong>

**So, as a reminder, the older fox is Miles, the younger is Tails.**

3

Displaced

"This place is _huge_—you built _all_ of this?" Tails gasped as Miles wandered through the halls of his underground lab, his younger self on his shoulders. Looking excitedly around the larger room around the elevator and leaning to look out the hallway windows that peered out of the cliff face to the ocean below. "Is this really still your house?"

"_Our_ house," Miles chuckled, "And you'll go and build this too eventually."

"No, I'll make it even better! And cooler too!" Tails declared, holding onto Miles' ears. "Like a big computer screen in a main room, and, and with other rooms branching off. And there will be a room that goes down to another room, but this one's much bigger and it's where I'll build planes for Sonic!" His enthusiasm deflated as he pulled Miles' ears flat. He leaned over to look at Miles, "Why couldn't the Sonic I know be here? Then we would have two Sonics and Eggman won't ever-ever stand a chance again? Then I could build planes for my Sonic and you can build planes for yours."

"…I don't know," Miles looked up and sighed. "Honestly, there were times when I wanted Sonic to have gotten stuck back in time with me. …maybe it would have happened if your Sonic missed the portal as well."

"Oh. Like a temporal equilibrium," Tails tilted his head suddenly, "Like one of us has to be somewhere in a time-frame—I missed the portal, so it took you back for the six years instead."

Miles looked away and down one of the halls, Tails didn't need to hold his ears down this time.

Tails shrunk back, "….s-s-sorry. Maybe if I was faster... maybe this wouldn't have happened…."

"Tails," Miles sighed. "Sonic isn't right about _everything_, there's more things in this world than just being fast."

"…I know," Tails mumbled, "Sonic tells me that to make me feel better when he has to wait for me to catch up…. He says that I'm smart and that's good too. He says I can be smarter than Eggman if I want to be."

"You already are smarter than Eggman, you just don't know it yet or how to apply yourself. Besides… being the smartest isn't everything either…."

Tails sighed and hung his head, "This is one of those, 'you'll understand when you're older' things, isn't it?"

Miles laughed and nodded, "And I swore to myself that I'd try not to pull one of those on anyone," He sighed and shook his head slightly, eyeing one of the doors in the hallway. He looked up at Tails, "Well, we found the hanger, a few empty rooms, a storage closet, and a few spare bedrooms. This floor _should_ have a few labs on it. What'd you say we pop our heads in this and see what we was doing a few days ago?

"We _was_?"

"We're the same person—Collective we? Singular we? …that's not how it's used isn't it?" Miles scoffed. "Whatever, let's not get into that." He opened the door and walked through.

The lights came on and the sizeable room before them was filled with a large model of the Mystic Ruins area in the middle of the room, complete with a moving spotlight for the sun, water, a representation of the moon, and little figurines for all the structures and trees and whatnot. The air had a different taste to it, a bit dryer and warmer than the cool hallways of the lab.

Miles slowly smiled, "I remember this." Tails took off and hovered over the model, looking all over it curiously. "Something about simulating weather patterns and erosion effects on the cliff line and how the area would react to other various rain effects from drought to rain to a snowstorm or something."

Tails took his nose out of a field of small, plastic flowers, "Snowstorm? _Here_?"

"No, wait, wait…." Miles snapped his fingers, "It was commission work for someone wanting to found a town—more like a large base camp for the archeologists… …somewhere…" His face fell. "Aw, _man—_I forgot where the guy wanted to put the town. I think I was still getting the model's weather system down—_please_ tell me I actually took notes for once." He moved for a small table at the back of the room, the only other thing here along with a small computer in the wall.

"…'com-mish-un work?'" Tails echoed, "Like a _job_?" He said it with such disgust that Miles double-taked at the look of horror on the kit's face. Miles laughed.

"Saving the world doesn't pay the bills—Spiderman still works as a photographer. Uh, please don't sit on the mountains? I didn't take that many, mostly I invented stuff and patented the gadgets—okay, I left the plans out…." He held up a paper, then slowly frowned at it, "…what the _heck_ was I thinking back then—why would I suggest that the town be focused around the oasis?" He waved towards the pool of water near the trolley lines through the caves to the forest. "Excavate the hills around it… that puts the town in a huge hole. It would get flooded in any sort of rain…. Ugh…."

He sighed and tossed the papers back onto the table and looked back over the model, leaning on the edge and drumming his fingers on the frame. "This is what I meant by being smart isn't everything—you need common sense." He looked at Tails. The little guy had drifted to the other side of the table, studying the little model of the house and the cliff side it was perched on. "If I had any, I'd let the people with _college degrees_ in this stuff do the work and just stick to building the model and running the simulations like I was _contracted_ to. If I did that, I _might_ not make myself look like an idiot for once."

Miles sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry, I get… annoyed with myself—I stick my nose where it do—That _is not_ aimed at you, okay? None of that was. All of it at myself—but not me as in you. I mean me as in myself when I was twelve. Dah, I'm so sorry." He sighed again. "Nevermind. Wanna check out the next room?"

Back out in the hall, Tails hovered down the hallway next to Miles as he walked. Miles noticed that the little kit was glancing up at him with a bit lip.

Miles bent down so he could look eye to eye, "What's up? …got to go bathroom?" He glanced left, "…I'm pretty sure there's one down the hall somewhere." Tails shook his head but wouldn't keep eye contact. Miles smiled, then grinned slightly, "You're talking to yourself here—not only that, you're talking to yourself and you're not crazy." Tails sniggered slightly. "But really, just say whatever's bothering you." He laughed, "You really have no reason to be afraid of me."

Tails nodded. "…what am I going to do?" Miles grin faltered for a second. "…I mean…" He glanced down and landed. Miles sat on the floor next to him. "…what am _I_ going to do?"

"I dunno, what do you want to do?" Miles shrugged whimsically. "I mean, the Eggman of this time is stuck in the middle of that time-void so we don't have to worry about him. We can do what you want to do…. I'll be honest, I don't know what you want to do—can't remember _everything_ when I was six."

"Not even _this_?" Tails blinked. "You _got_ to remember meeting yourself!"

"Uh, heh. Well… like I said, I'm not sure how this works…." Miles muttered, scratching his ear. "M-maybe there's nothing to remember yet."

Tails tilted his head, "Oh…." He tilted it the other way, eyes looking through Miles, lost in thought.

Miles mentally cursed at himself, "But anyway! _Really_, is that's what's bothering you?" Tails' eyes refocused, blinked, met Miles's for a second, then looked away. Miles sighed knowingly, nodding his head and putting a hand on Tails' shoulder.

"Listen," Miles started, getting Tails to glance back up at him for a second. "I've been what you're going through. You just got tossed out of your own time. Displaced. It sucks, I know. But listen, you have it _far_ better off than I did. You don't have to worry about paradoxes; you don't have to worry about events happening that you can't do a thing about; you don't have to live through them twice…." Miles faded off for a second, then shook his head slightly.

He looked back to Tails, finally getting his eyes to meet, "Hey. I know you feel like you're stuck in a scary new world, all alone… but! All your friends are here—even if they're future friends for you, they're still your friends. And, above all, you got me. And I _know_ you better than anyone because you're me. And I'm you! And I know there's still something bothering you because you're tails aren't flicking around." Tails curled his tails around himself. "K'emon, what's botherin' ya?"

"Sonic isn't really Sonic."

"I'm not following you," Miles said frowning. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't Shadow that came in the door, though some people do confuse the two."

Tails sighed, "He isn't the Sonic I know."

"Well, y—" Miles cut himself off. Then nodded. "Okay. Okay, I get you. You're right. Everyone's older. ….six years is a long time, both ways. But there's Cream and Cheese and Charmy. But at least Son—"

"But he's _not Sonic_," Tails mumbled, hanging his head again. He looked back up again, "Why couldn't my Sonic stay here too? Why is it just me?" His voice was almost depressed but his eyes were glossy. "Why—" He cut himself off and looked at his feet, ears flattening again.

"...what why...?"

Tails shook his head.

Miles stayed quiet, watching as his younger self fidget, twirling the fur on his tail, feet shifting… the signs that he had realized something but didn't want to share what. The fact that he was shrinking slightly told Miles that the little guy was afraid of how'd Miles would react to it or the very act of saying act of saying it would make Tails start crying.

So Miles did the thing that he'd want the other guy to do if he was in Tails' shoes, move off the topic. Preferably: "Hungry? I'm thinking burgers."

Tails' head snapped up, "Hamburgers? With cheese—cheeseburgers and bacon—no pickles. I don't like pickles. No lettuce, it smells weird—or is that cabbage? No lettuce or cabbage—do you even put cabbage on burgers? Oh, tomato's okay. I kinda like some… onions…." He faded off as Miles narrowed his eyes at him, the older fox leaning forward.

"You know what?" The older fox said, completely flat.

"W-what?"

"I can do you one better. Bacon, and cheese…. In. The. Burger. _Whooaaaa-_hahahaha!_"_ Miles' mask shattered into laughter as Tails' face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Wow, really! You can _do_ that!"

Miles smiled, "Picked up the recipe a few years ago. Takes a bit of work, a bit of time." He glanced down the hall. "I'm starting to remember what's in what room." He pointed to the next one down the hall, "That one has a bit of hydroponic thing going on in there. Can't remember _what_'s growing in there, but we can find that out later if you want."

Tails tilted his head again, "Huh?"

"If you want, we can keep nosing around down here after lunch."

The head tilted the other way, "If _I_ want?"

Miles laughed softly, "Tails, seriously. I don't really know what to do myself."

Tails blinked, "I don't know what I wanna do either! What can we do—can we have _steak_ for dinner? Can we put bacon in the steak? Can we put _steak_ in the-can we put bacon in the stake and put that steak in another steak?"

Miles laughed, "I might draw the line there—I don't think I have any steak in the fridge…" he frowned, "…I barely have _anything_ in the fridge. Guess we'll have to go grocery shopping after meeting with Vanilla."

Tails' face fell.

"There's a great ice cream—"

"Ice cream!" Tails cheered.

Miles burst out laughing. "Now I know how Sonic felt dealing with me when— …my pocket's yelling at me…." He reached into his vest and pulled out a buzzing cellphone. After glancing at the screen, "Hey, I gotta take this. You head on up, I'll be up in a few."

Tails blinked, "What is that?"

Miles blinked, "What is—" he double-taked at his cell. "It's a cellphone—uh, a mobile phone that I can use anywhere…?"

"But it's… _tiny_."

Miles blinked. He went to say something but stopped twice. "Later. Go on."

Tails slowly headed off down the corridor. After he had disappeared, Miles ducked into the Hydroponics room, ignoring its contents.

His face went serious, his voice dropping two octaves, "Right. Listen. I dunno who this is, but I ain't happy that you got this numbah. Either—" He scowled. "Fine, fine." He coughed, his voice going back to normal. "Lighten up, take a joke for once. Oh wait. _You're not supposed to have this number_. Not directly. Yes, I knew it was you. Come'on, I've got a backdoor into every phone company's software, even one in the _internet itself._ No, no. It's possible. Leagues of roaming viruses, their sole purpose is to _look for anything dialing this number and telling me who it is_. If I don't like it, some little tea shop in Spagonia gets a call." He scoffed. "I am not joking. You got my attention. Is that a good thing?"

He laughed, "Course it doesn't sound like me, paranoia does wonders to someone's mental state. Great for the skin too. But really, how did you get this number…." He rolled his eyes. "…tell GUN to give that guy a raise. No, seriously. I am impressed. Also, tell them they have five minutes before the virus completely nukes their entire computer network." He laughed. "I'm _serious_. But really, why did you call?" He sighed silently, "Okay. ...okay. In _hindsight,_ I can sort of see what you're talking about. But as to if that was me, or if that was _me_…. maybe you should consult your damned forth Chaos Emerald?"

He hung up, pocketed the phone, and wondered if that old man at the tea shop was dealing with another wrong number as he moved back to the elevator.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-I~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

**This has been your friendly reminder, Miles, that you're not the only one with Time-Traveler Blues.**

**Anyway. ****I'm not making up the cheese-in-the-burger cheeseburger, Google "Juicy Lucy." It's a thing. ...not exactly with the bacon part, but it might be possible.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Landings

**Mega-thanks to everyone who reviewed/reviews. I'm really glad everyone's liking this little story.  
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**Also, I'm trying to aim for an update at least once every other week. With summer classes over, I aim to go full-tilt in the four or so writing projects I have. (this being one).**

4

Landings

Blaze the Cat meditated in the gardens of the Vanilla residence, the scents of the flowers helping to clear her mind as she went through her daily mental exercises.

While her lavender-colored fur wasn't out of place, the style of her purple cloak and white pants along with her fuzzy-cuffed gloves and shoes certainly were. Nevermind the fact that her shoes were clearly running shoes, but had a heel on them. As the princess of her land, she wore a red circular gem on her forehead and a golden necklace. The circular gem that held her short ponytail, however, was of her own choosing.

As she meditated, the air around her slowly took alight in five small, hovering flames. Slowly, they orbited around her, their flames trailing after them. She took in a deep breath, then let it out slow. The flames, in respond, shrunk, then grew in size. They spun around her several more times, slowly pulsating in time to her breaths.

And then, as one passed directly in front of her, it stopped. The others continued to orbit until they met with the stationary flame and merged with it, the tongue of fire growing in size.

She opened her eyes and looked into the yellow-red ball of fire, continuing her slow, steady breathing. After several breathes, the flame resumed to grow and shrink in tune to her.

"I am the master of my flame," Blaze whispered silently. "It gives me my strength, and I respect its power. I call it into being, and it heeds my will. This is not a curse. This is not a gift. This is a part of me, just as I am a part of it. We are inseparable, my flame and me; Blaze."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and the fireball dissipated. After a minute, she opened them again, there was a small, two-tailed fox sitting opposite her.

"That's _cooooool_," He said, grinning. "Can you make a huger fireball? Can I get a tennis racket and we can play tennis with it?" Blaze glanced out the garden hedges. "…he's checking on the plane." Tails slumped. "…I didn't make a good landing and I think I hit a bush…."

"Oh, they needed trimming anyway," Vanilla laughed as she walked out of the French doors into the garden.

"….or four. Maybe a tree…." He wrapped his tails around him and shrunk into a little ball of fur, looking up with big watery blue eyes. "I think I hit something else too…. I'm sorry, Mrs. Vanilla…."

"That's okay, little one," Vanilla said softly, smiling warmly as she kneeled down next to him, "Everyone makes mistakes. Bushes grow back. I made fresh lemonade and we can wait for Miles inside. Does that sound good to you?" She held out her hand to Tails.

Tails nodded and slowly took her hand, standing up. "Thank you Mrs. Vanilla."

Vanilla smiled, "Please, just Vanilla is fine, dear." She looked up, "Blaze, are you going to join us?"

"No thank you," Blaze said, shaking her head. "The lemons here… they taste sour to me."

"Lemons are supposed to be sour," Tails said, tilting his head again. "…what do they taste like where you're from?"

Blaze blinked, "…in either case, I'll excuse myself." She nodded and stood up, walking out of the garden.

Tails' ears drooped, "I don't think Blaze likes me."

"Oh, don't you worry yourself, Tails," Vanilla laughed slightly. "Blaze is a very quiet person; it takes a little while for her to warm up to new people." Tails started giggling, it took Vanilla a few seconds to catch on. She laughed and shook her head as they headed back into the house. "You know what I mean."

Blaze walked through the hedges that secluded the garden away from the flat grassy lawn, following the path that led to the large fountain in the middle of the grassy lawn. …and to the plane next to it.

She walked up to the plane… aside from a few scratches it was fine. She couldn't see Miles any—

A figure popped up out of the fountain.

"Oh, hey, Blaze," Miles sighed, looking over the waist-high fountain edge at the other side of the fountain, not looking at her. He lifted up his goggles from his eyes and ran his hand over the side. "MiniMe's a pro at flying the plane… not so much at landing it." He waved off to the back of the plane. From her spot atop the plane, she frowned as she followed the trail of branches and twigs that lead back to the small fruit orchard. The small blueberry bushes that grew next to the orchard had been completely annihilated. The peach and lemon trees in the orchard missing a copious amount of branches. "He clipped the fountain too. Not that much, just this bit right here." He tapped the side softly. "Thankfully, I brought along… call it liquid duct-tape meets liquid cement. I can at least fix it so she won't notice…." He sighed and looked up at her, and noticed her burning glare and grimace. "_Oh_."

He ducked back beneath the water.

Blaze scowled and hopped off the plane. She stuck a hand in the fountain and dragged the fox out of it.

"_Please_ don't do that," Blaze said flatly before dropping him back into the water. "If you were Silver, I'd blast you.

Miles stepped out of the fountain, dodging her glare, "Well… then I… hate to ask this, but—"

"_Gladly_," Blaze tossed a hand at him and blasted a wall of fire over him. Miles opened his eyes slowly, then quickly checked himself. Nothing burnt. Nothing singed. Just dry.

"Thanks," He said, smoothing out his bangs. "…is the fireball really necessary or is that just you getting me back for scaring you?"

"Yes," She said flatly as she headed back the way she came.

"I figured," Miles sighed again, "Just _please_ don't tell Vanilla about her fountain. Bushes are one thing. That fountain's different."

Blaze raised an eyebrow at him, "Still working on—"

"It was a gift from her husband."

"Right. You barely missed it."

Miles sighed in relief, "Thanks."

"By a millimeter. The plane was just touching the marble—" she looked back at him. "How is your plane undamaged if it ran into a marble fountain?"

"Who says it isn't?" Miles grumbled. "Landing gear's a wreck, though it doesn't look it." He looked over the trail of destruction leading up to the plane. "Vanilla's going to have my head for this."

"Was he really the one flying?"

"Yeah, I gave him the controls halfway here. He knows how to fly a plane. He should know how to _land_ one but… Vanilla's going to hold _me_ responsible for not being responsible. …I'm going to be a scarf by the time this is over."

"...Tails already apologized to her," Blaze said awkwardly. "Granted, he didn't mention the full aspects of the damage, but she accepted his apology."

"Did he curl up into a little ball, flatten his ears, and look up with big weepy eyes? Yeah? I'm gonna die."

"Hmm?"

"He knows how adorable we can be—he deflected Vanilla's blame to me," He scowled.

Blaze stopped and turned back to him, "You? Adorable?" She scoffed.

Tails grabbed the goggles off of his head and fiddled with them awkwardly. His shoulders slumped and he shrunk away from Blaze with his head low. His ears flattened, he bit his lip—

"It's not working," Blaze scowled. "You just look silly."

"I am not silly. I am _adoooorable_~~!" He whined in slight sing-song, his voice almost like Tails'. Blaze groaned and rolled her eyes as she turned away. Miles burst out laughter, straightening back up and donning his goggles again.

"…aren't you forgetting something?" She sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "Like a journal or whatever?"

"No," Miles said simply. "No journal for Vanilla today. Today is sorting out how we're going to handle MiniMe. And then I get enough food to feed two families, and some for myself as well. He's a bigger eater than Silver. ….where is Silver anyway?"

Blaze tossed up her hands, "Guess."

Miles nodded, "Well, Silver hasn't changed much."

"No, no he hasn't," She sighed.

Miles caught up to her, walking in step beside her with a concerned look across his face, "Is everything okay over there? If you guys need help, I'll be glad to stick around for a few days when I bring you guys back."

"That's not necessary," Blaze shook her head. "Vanilla plans to have her story in the newspapers tomorrow morning—you'll be dealing with enough fallout _here_ as it is."

Miles studied her for a few seconds. She was walking along the path with her eyes closed and arms crossed, head slightly tilted down and away from him.

"…okay," Miles said carefully. "Okay." He nodded and looked down the path. "…my plan is to refit the thing I brought you over on to use a new power source I developed—a new one, not the one I used for my wondrous time machine. It should be enough to get you guys back without using the Emeralds and _not_ blow up when near a Sol Emerald. Moreover," He looked at her, "I'm going to let you guys keep it. Just keep Silver away from it—the power core is only good for a few trips back and forth and I don't need him popping over every Saturday just to pull pranks on me."

Blaze eyed him with a raised eyebrow, "Is _that_ what was going on? Does he realize that one of his 'pranks' had Antione running all over the capitol in a wild goose chase? For _cheese_ of all things?"

"Uh, that one was mine," He laughed nervously as Blaze's glare crashed down on him. "That was actually the purpose—get Antione off our backs for…." He drifted off as Blaze sighed at him, a hand rising to rub her temple.

"I never expected _you_ to stoop to a prank-war with Silver…."

"Weeeeeell…" He started, "We never really aimed for each other…." He met Blaze's leer and laughed again. "Neither of us just had the nerve to actually go through with it."

"And for good reason," She sighed, shaking her head and walking away.

"You have no idea," Miles muttered, glancing back to the fountain. It looked perfectly fine. From here, that little chip was completely inconspicuous. "But really, Blaze!" He caught up to her. "We weren't making fools of ourselves just for you to scoff at us. Okay, making a fool of Silver." She ignored him. "Blaze, I realize that you're always dealing with, you know, your duties as a princess. But whatever's going on back home… try to forget it while you here, hmm? Maybe a smile?"

"I don't feel like laughing right now, Tails," Blaze said, a tiredness in her voice. "But… thank you. …or is it Miles?"

"Your choice," Miles said as he tossed her a whimsical grin. "I really don't care at this point. MiniMe and I came up with something that'll solve that issue. Mostly him, honestly."

"Well, this will certainly be interesting then."

"It's actually far more simple than you'd think."

"Ah, the truth then."

"The truth is complicated. But, twist it slightly and the lines look straight."

Blaze looked over at him, "You of all people should know—tell me, how far did the truth bend when we met the last time?"

"Blaze," Miles said, "You saw it completely straight. I didn't hide anything." Blaze tossed him an incredulous look. He grinned, putting an arm around her shoulders, "Blaze, I just said my name was Miles and my time-machine instead aspired to be a world traveler. I never lied because you never asked."

Blaze shook him off, but nodded, the faintest smirk on her face, "Hiding in plain sight, just like you."

Miles stopped, "When was I hiding? I just didn't tell you who I was, that's it. That isn't exactly hiding, you know?"

Blaze looked at him for a second, then slowly nodded to herself and entered the house.

Miles slowly scratched behind his ear, "_Nothing_ bothers Blaze this much. What's going on back there...? Note to self, press Silver for details." He went through the doors.


	6. Understatements

**Thank you for the comments and to everyone else reading this! It really makes my day. This chapter's a little late due to stuff happening.  
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5

Understatements

"Hey, Sonic," Miles said as he noticed the small group in the kitchen. Tails sat at the breakfast counter next to Sonic while Vanilla sat at the table nearby. Tails stopped kicking his legs when Miles walked in, letting them swing to a stop, his tails already still behind him. "Vanilla…. Uh, sorry about your orchard. The trees themselves are fine, they're just going to be lopsided for a few years…. As for your blueberries… I'll replace them, don't worry."

Vanilla's soft smile faltered when the blueberries were mentioned, "Well, accidents happen…." She faded off and offered Blaze a drink, "Hot Tea, sweetened." Blaze nodded a thanks and sipped it, taking a seat across from Vanilla.

Miles noted Tails' nervous glances at Vanilla, she softly sighed and poured herself more tea. Miles noticed there were only four glasses out. He leaned against the kitchen island.

"…I take it Silver is still sawing logs," Miles started carefully.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sonic scoffed. "Either he didn't believe that I said you were here this time, or just slept through the wakeup call."

"Such is Silver," Blaze said, cup at her nose. "What kind of tea is this, Vanilla? This certainly isn't what I had the last time I was here."

Vanilla smiled to her, "Why, blueberry."

"_Noted_," Miles sighed. Sonic scoffed silently and shook his head.

"Anyway," Sonic said, trying to get things back on course. "I'm curious to hear what exactly your plan of action for this is, Tails." He looked at Tails, "I meant the other one, sorry."

"'sokay," Tails shrugged, looking at his mostly empty glass as he started swinging his legs again, his tails resuming their normal flicking. "Can I have sommore lemonade, Aunt Vanilla?"

"_Aunt_ Vanilla?" Miles quickly echoed, looking to her.

"'May I have more lemonade,' Tails. And yes, you may," She said to Tails, standing up to pass the pitcher to Sonic to pour for him before turning to Miles. "He felt uncomfortable just calling me by my name. I hope this doesn't bother you."

Miles shook his head, "Not at all, it sounds like me—when I was him—six-year-old Tails would do something like that. _Pronouns_!" He scowled and paced around the island.

Tails laughed, "He was like that all day yesterday. It's funny."

"That sounds like the Miles I know," Blaze added, smelling her tea. "Always fumbling with inconsequential things."

"Ignore her, she's yanking my chain since Silver's not here to do it," Miles said flatly. "_Anyway_…." He sighed deeply. "…okay, this is the plan—_yes, Sonic_?"

There was enough annoyance in Miles' voice for Sonic to hesitate for a second. "Uh, well. Vanilla said yesterday you called about ten minutes after I left, right?" Vanilla nodded to his question. "We're kinda worried that you might have rushed it and... well…." He pointed down to Tails as the kit took a big gulp from his glass.

Miles rolled his eyes, "Tails thought up the plan. I just refined it. He's happy with it, and I'm fine with it. How does that feel, Sonic?"

"Well, what is it? Tails—_Miles_. Miles, I really don't wanna lie here. Everyone deserves to know what really happened."

"He told me he was only going to lie only slightly," Blaze budged in.

"If you guys let me speak, I'll tell you! Come on," Miles sighed. "There's only one lie in this, and it's not about me. I get sent back six years and live them over again in secrecy. The lie is…." he motioned to Tails.

"I'mma long-lost cousin," Tails said, a pang of fear going through his voice as he looked at the ice cubes in his glass. "Big-Me said he met an old lady on the train and said we were both cousins of Tails. Something about twins and such—twin cousin was it?" He glanced at Miles.

"Long story short," Miles picked up, "I panicked and made up the story that my—our, whatever—Tails' parents each had a twin, and those twins married each other and had us. You know, s'why we look alike? I really dunno what I was thinking. But the idea is, yes, he's my cousin. I stumbled across him a few months ago, his parents having died in the Black Arms Invasion. We hand-wave off the incident with the old lady with it being exactly what it was—me panicking on how she'll see me, except with him actually being a cousin."

Sonic exchanged glances with Vanilla and Blaze.

"…I don't know of this Black Arms thing," Blaze spoke up first. "But this isn't exactly the small lie you made it out to be, Miles."

"I agree," Vanilla nodded. "I realize why you chose the Black Arms Invasion—certainly a world-wide alien invasion left no one unaffected—"

"_Aliens_?" Blaze and Tails echoed, the former in horror, the latter in awe.

Vanilla continued, "But where would have this imaginary family had lived?"

"We don't _have_ to say," Miles shrugged. "Or just glaze over that fact, pass it off as unimportant. Everyone would still be recovering from the fact that they had to re-read the first half-of the story when they reach his paragraph. The city doesn't exist anymore, there, that works right?"

"No. No, it doesn't," Vanilla rebounded with a soft glare, "We need a general area at the least."

"What about a remote village in the sticks?" Sonic tossed out. Vanilla and Blaze looked at him. "What? I think it'll roll. So long as MiniTails is fine with it."

"I'm fine with it," he said flatly, tails missing a beat in their flicking.

"Okay then," Sonic mused. "You know you can't be 'Tails,' right?" He finger-quoted the name. "That's part of the story."

"I didn't meet Big-Me until a few months ago, I could have the name Tails. It's not weird," Tails countered, voice a dull monotone as he watched the ice cubes slowly melt in the bottom of his glass.

"But… hold on, let me figure out a way to phrase this," Sonic muttered.

"Ha!" Miles launched an accusatory finger at the hedgehog. "See what I've been dealing with?"

"Yeah-yeah. Okay. NeoTails over there still has 'Miles Prower' as his real name—I'm asking him, not you." He cut off Miles before he could say anything. "What's going to be your 'real name?'"

"Skye Prower," Tails said without missing a beat.

Sonic glared at Miles, "_Skye_, eh?"

"Sonic, here's something I never told you—I _always_ wanted Skye to be my name," Miles sighed. "When I was him, I used Skye because everyone teased me over my name. On the train, it was the first name that popped into my head."

"So why didn't you tell me Skye was your name when you met me?" Sonic stabbed.

"Well… mostly because the towns on West Side Island that knew me by Skye by then… they kinda wanted my hide for various reasons."

Sonic glared for a few seconds before laughing, "Yeah, I knew. They knew your real name as well—you have two tails, you _kinda_ stick out."

"You don't have to tell us that," both foxes growled.

Vanilla sighed, "Skye Prower, long-lost cousin of Miles Prower, a refugee from the Black Arms Invasion after his home was destroyed by the invaders."

"Idea," Sonic piped up again, "He can't remember. He blocked out that memory because it was too horrific."

"I don't want people fussing over me," Tails muttered, shrinking slightly. "Can't we just drop the aliens and say I don't know where my parents are? No one knows were my actual parents went, right…."

"One less lie," Blaze nodded. "Or, at the very least, a smaller one."

"We still need a place for Miles to find him in," Vanilla reminded. "And it must be a place that catered to his intellect—I don't see Skye being from the country."

"Vanilla, you clearly haven't been to West Side Island," Sonic said.

Miles snapped his fingers, "Have any of you heard of the Oil Rocks? … no? Okay, Oil Ocean, remember that sludge oil reclamation plant on West Side, Sonic? It's basically like that but without the giant sludge pit. It's a _huge_ oil derrick in the middle of the Orange Sea that was abandoned after an earthquake or something like that. I dunno. It was built to be a small city, and it been abandoned for years. I spent a month going through that place—there's a massive library, plenty of machinery, and it's all abandoned. And even if anyone came in to loot the place—for what little it'll net them—there's plenty of hiding spots. He saw I had two tails as well and came out."

"Sure," Tails said, cutting off everyone. "It's not much different from West Side, then. I just didn't have to deal with everyone kicking me over the street."

Miles blinked. Sonic blinked. Vanilla blinked. Blaze sighed and broke the silence, "Well, now that that's decided…."

"…yes," Vanilla said after a second. "Miles… I want to type up a quick draft of the article. If you can, I would appreciate your help so we don't compound issues when we tell your story later."

"Uh…" Miles started as Vanilla stood up. "Sure. I guess. I mean, by the time he comes into the picture—he comes in way down the line."

"It's best if we clear what's going on with him right away," Vanilla started, "That way, when we do reach the point in time where you supposedly met him, we can seamlessly merge stories. After all, this entire ruse is to protect him, yes?"

"I'm not sure if this will protect anyone," Blaze sighed quietly. Miles glanced at her and walked to Tails and covered his ears.

"Blaze, I've made enemies during those six years," Miles started, glancing down to meet the glare Tails was shooting up at him. "Most know me under other identities that I hid myself with holograms but a few I didn't have time to come up with a cover, so they know me as _me_ and they _really_ don't like me. If _any_ of them know that he's me when I'm six, they'll attempt some preemptive solution to their problem—kill him, they kill me."

"And then we have a wonderful mess on our hands," Sonic added in, watching Tails fold his arms and pouted for a few seconds before his eyes drifted off in thought. "It's the _one_ thing I agree with him on with this timey-whimy mess, keep MiniTails safe and avoid the cheesy B-Rated movie plot. At least with this plan, Miles gets the weird look of being older than he should be while Tails is—."

"Oh, Grandfather Paradox…." Tails muttered quietly. "Yeah, that would be bad….."

Miles sighed and pulled his hands away. Sonic scoffed, smirking, "He caught on fast."

"Well, what else…?" Tails shrugged, but still shrunk. "I've been wondering about….." his voice faded out and he looked back into his glass.

"Miles?" Vanilla reminded and motioned to her study. Miles nodded, then hesitated for an instant mid-step as he noticed she wasn't smiling. Definitely not with her eyes either. Rolling his shoulders subtly, he headed into the other room. Vanilla followed, closing the door behind them.

Sonic seethed, "Yeah, Vanilla's not too happy right now. That orchard's about as old as Cream." He sighed and ruffled Tails' headfur. Then noticed how far down he'd shrunk. "Ah… don't worry, she won't be too hard on him."

"I'll tell you how it goes when I'm him…." Tails muttered.

"Ah, comeon, Tails. Vanilla's quick to forgive. This is actually the third time those bushes had to be replaced. _I_ ran them over the first time. I kinda didn't know she had put them in," He laughed.

Tails huffed and spun the ice in his glass.

"So how'd you like the workshop?" Sonic asked quickly.

"'s okay. Big. I like it…" he faded off before looking up to Sonic, his face frowning in sudden defiance. "I'm not gonna spy on BigMe!"

"Wh—I'm not asking you to spy on him—"

"You are!" Tails huffed, straightening back up.

"What is this now?" Blaze spoke up.

"Sonic doesn't trust BigMe," Tails butted in before Sonic, not looking over at Blaze.

"That's not what I meant," Sonic sighed. "I wanted him to keep an eye on Ta—Miles so he doesn't do anything stupid."

"He wants me to spy and tell him stuff."

"_Only_ if he does something stupid."

Tails pouted loudly, puffing his cheeks, folding his arms, and glaring at his glass on the counter as if he could melt the ice cubes by glaring at them.

After a second, Sonic laughed. "I remember this!" He said in bemusement, "You did this all the time when you wanted to go somewhere and I didn't let you." He glanced to Blaze, "It was either this or trying to look adorable. Neither really worked with me."

"Hmph!" Tails huffed and glared harder at his glass.

Blaze sighed, "Sonic, did the Miles you know dislike being talked of behind his back?"

"_Yes_!" Tails called out loudly to the ceiling. Sonic laughed quietly and pointed to Tails, nodding.

"Well, he certainly still doesn't like it, but we're not exactly in a position to _not_ talk behind his back…." Blaze hesitated for a few seconds, long enough for the little kit to look at her and longer still for the pause to be awkward. "Miles… as he is now…. He isn't how he was when he was twelve—during the Time Eater incident." She glanced off to the side, "Bah, he's right, this is confusing."

Scoffing at herself, she continued, "The fact that he had to relive six years of his life… Vanilla is amazed that he hasn't gone insane, and, honestly, I am as well. But in any case it certainly has taken its toll on him." She glanced up at Sonic, "While he was on my world, there were times where he…. In certain situations, Miles acted immediately in ways I never fully understood and, honestly, I do not think he knows fully either. From what Sonic told me of the incident on the train, he obviously still does this."

She sighed and paused for a second with her eyes closed. Then, "While he was on my world, there were times where he ran off alone…." She shook her head and opened her eyes, looking at Tails, "What I mean is that no matter how well composed he looks, Miles has been taken completely off guard. He's trying to be the big brother and protect you however he can. All Sonic is asking is that you help us protect him from doing something incredibly stupid. We're all going to be keeping an eye on him, but you're in the best position to do so. Can you please do this for us, Tails?"

Tails tilted his head, his pouting look had faded away as Blaze talked. Slowly, he nodded.

Blaze smiled softly and sighed quietly, "Thank you. …don't worry, he'll do something stupid soon. It's Miles."

"And you _still_ won't tell me what these stupid things are," Sonic chipped in.

"That's for him to tell you. I just told you how he was when he was with me and Silver. Just… believe me, some were more stupid than others."

"How stupid?"

"He nearly—hello Cream."

"Hello!" Cream grinned with a large paper bag in her arms a few baguettes poking out the top. She walked sideways through the halls, facing Blaze. "Mother's making all of us spaghetti—I'm back with all the bread and pasta!" Blaze took the bag from her and set it down on the table. Cream looked behind her, "Cheese?"

A bluish, teardrop-shaped head popped out of the bag, munching on a few strands of raw linguini, an odd little sphere above its head quickly morphing into a question mark. Cream frowned at him. "Cheese! Those are for dinner!" She scoffed and lifted him out, stepping up onto a chair to check where he had gotten them from.

The little nine-year-old rabbit certainly took after her mother, her fur coloration the same light brown and creamy color that gave her her name. She was inseparable from her little Chao friend, despite the mischief Cheese had gotten himself into recently. Hopping down from the chair, she smoothed out her dress and tossed one last warning glare to her Chao before noticing the others in the room.

"Hello Mr. Sonic, and…" She visibly flinched. "…Tails?" She looked back to Blaze for confirmation. Blaze nodded. Cheese hovered around Tails for a second before happily landing on his head. He hummed a little tune, pushing and pulling Tails' ears in beat to the tune. "Um. I'm… very sorry. Mother… wanted me to do some weeding in the garden when I got back. Please excuse us." She bowed slightly to all of them. "Cheese?"

The Chao reluctantly lifted off from the slightly amused fox kit's head, pausing only to offer an uneaten strand of pasta to him before flying off behind her, pausing only to wave to Miles as he poked his head through the door.

"Hey Cheese," Miles nodded back. He eyed the bag on the table and leaned back out of view. "Yeah, that was her…." He leaned back in. "She head outside again?"

"She said she had a few chores to do in the garden," Blaze said before Sonic could. Her eyes only leaving Miles' twice to glance out the window and at Tails.

Miles nodded, "Okay…." he glanced out the window. "Hey, Skye." Tails blinked. Miles smiled, "Come on in, Vanilla wants to talk to both of us before she sends everything off for tomorrow's papers."

Tails blinked again, then quickly stuck the strand of pasta into his glass before hopping down and trotting over. Miles watched him and nodded towards the study. When the little fox was past, Miles looked back to Sonic, "Hey… do you still have my journal with you…?"

"Uh, yeah—well, it's in Vanilla's safe," Sonic corrected himself, noticing Miles' still tails.

"Oh, okay. Thanks," Miles nodded, then tossed a battered and defeated look to Blaze before he disappeared around the corner again.

Blaze sighed and shook her head. When she looked back to Sonic, he was looking out the window, scratching behind his ear.

"Well, I guess he's gonna give the journal to Vanilla after all," He muttered to himself, then glanced at Blaze. "…so Cream…?"

"Cream didn't realize the… permanence of the situation," Blaze said, picking her words carefully. "Once she heard that Silver and I had met him back then… the gravity of what happened hit her and she, well, you saw her." Blaze looked out the window herself, finding the little rabbit sitting in the spot she meditated with Blaze yesterday. "...she's so used to us fixing everything, Sonic. No matter what happens, we set things right again. She thought there was a way to completely undo all this and the Tails she knew would be here again."

"I'd like to find that magic light switch myself then," Sonic mumbled. He shook his head and, louder, "But I guess if Tails couldn't find it in six years... I guess sometimes you can't just fix things."

Blaze nodded, "When a forest catches alight, sometimes the best thing to do is just wait for what grows out of the ashes." Sonic raised an eyebrow but Blaze cut him off, "It's an idiom—nevermind. I'm agreeing with you."

"Just checking."

* * *

><p>Vanilla politely waited for her guests to leave before turning her attention to the journal.<p>

She saw it when Sonic had it, but made an effort not to acknowledge its presence in the room because it's very look spoke as much as what it held inside and she didn't want to assume without Miles' permission.

It was a small twenty-five cent composition book—the kind with the black and white splotches on the cover pretending to be some kind of Rorschach test. That is, most of the cover was. Bar several bits and pieces missing, the entire book seemed to have been caught in a pool of water. The lower right corner of the cover was also bent slightly and had completely faded to white, as if it was poking out of where it was hiding all these years and yet never bothered.

Huge chunks of pages were missing, at least half. Possibly more. Flipping through the remainder, many more were either blank or the writing had been destroyed by the water damage, the pages themselves stiff. In several areas, it was clear that the book was first written in pencil, and then inked over with pen, and then a second time over after the book had dried. In several spots, it was as if Miles hadn't bothered going over it again, the ink stopping mid-word and the rest of the page washed out, any trace of the words lost in the wrinkled pages.

Sighing, Vanilla turned to the first, only for a small note card to fall out. Clearly recent in both the feel of the paper and the drastic improvement in Miles' handwriting, it certainly wasn't there when Sonic accidentally opened the cover in front of her.

_You know my name, but you don't know where I've been._

_You think I'm innocent, but you don't know how I've sinned._

_Six years I've hid, and six years I lied._

_I did what I could; naught for who died._

_You'll read me at my best. You'll hear me at my worst._

_It all starts here. This is the first._


	7. Journal 1

[**OF _ANY_ NOTE TO READ _PLEASE_ READ THIS ONE.]  
>[THE CHAPTER WILL <em>NOT<em> MAKE SENSE DUE TO THE USE OF SYMBOLS TO DENOTE CERTAIN THINGS.]  
>[THANK YOU.]<strong>

**Bold text that's centered for this and future Journal chapters are Miles with his pen at a later point in time. Also, for these chapters, if you find spelling and grammar mistakes, _they are intentional. _INTENTIONAL! DO YOU HEAR ME, SPELLCHECK?! STOP AUTOCORRECTING THE WORDS I'M MISSPELLING ON PURPOSE!**  
><strong>The line brakes show the start and end of pages.<strong>  
><strong>The little periods (or full stops, whatever you call them) are to maintain the space between paragraphs, since the site doesn't like row after row of nothing. I know why they do it, but it's imperative that the spacing be in this chapter because the <em>lack<em> of anything is a part of the story. I ultimately got rid of most of them, but what I left in is needed.**  
><strong>The '&amp;.' are the bits of torn paper stuck in the binding, showing where Miles tore a page out or a <em>piece<em> of the page out.**  
><strong>Multiple line breaks in a row with '&amp;.' are multiple missing pages. (It was originally a Greater Than sign, but the site doesn't like that symbol) They may not look pretty, but I had to work with what I had.<br>Line breaks with a period/full stop between are blank pages.  
>It looks much better when there's actual pages involved. I still love how it came out though.<strong>

**Important things aside, I forgot to note last chapter: Google 'Oil Rocks' and be amazed. It exists, it's in the Caspian Sea.  
><strong>

**And yes, these Journal chapters are going to be longer than usual. Some future ones are going to be split into parts, others I have other plans for.**

.

Journal 1

-6:0:0:0:0 to 5:8:27:9:15

* * *

><p><em>This is West Side Is. I'm not sure how I got here. 1 sec I'm with Sonic and everyone and the next I'm somewhere near the Chem Plant Zone; where else. My only guess is that something weird happened at the party and everyone got scattered somehow.<em>

_This is some back-up plan Eggman had then it's not like him to have one. Maybe the past-Eggman came up with it and set it to go off after we all got back._

_Why didn't Eggman know that his plan was going to fail then? If his past-self was there as well, then he definately would have known. Unless he forgot. But how can he forget meeting his future self? Then again, I don't remember meeting my future self when I was past-me._

_Unless there was nothing to remember yet. Interfering with the timeline by bringing the past and present together might have transplanted several days into the past selves lives that then incorporates itself into the time stream once the past- and present- selves return to their original time-frames, where the_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_**/technospeak not worth saving**__._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_Still explain why I don't remember anything when I was past me. Unless, if I'm right, a past-self hasn't returned to the ti __Past Egman__!_

_Past-Eggman is still stuck in the Void! If hes in there, then the timestream is still missing something to return to normal and for the changes to it to stick. If I'm right._

_How is he going to get back, anyway? If he doesn't return to the timeframe where he came from, what would hapen? When I talked with Past-Me, the last thing he was doing was messing with the Tornado before taking off to check out where the first Death Egg landed._

_I actually saw a reproduction of the Tornado today taking off from over near the beach hanger while I was walking back from town. Pretty well done, actually. Considering how it handled, the guy must have followed the plans to the letter. I'll have to fix the steering for him in that case._

* * *

><p><em>I'll stick here until he gets back then. It's actually really, really late and I'm in one of my old hiding spots. Better here than in town. I don't care if it's been 6 years, I still tied my tails together when I went into town. It looked just as I left it, even the gas prices are the same. Then again, they are next to the Oil Ocean so hey.<em>

_Didn't really stick around just walked the streets for a few minutes. I caught Murphy's just before it closed, just to see what was up in there. The old jaguar was still in there, tidying up the merchandise. He gave me that same evil eye he always gives to everyone, but he didn't recognize me. He does have a tiny bit of heart though, who knew? He let me have this thing and a few pens in return for a small errand._

_This is before the plane. Was going to start drawing up plans to get off this island. But if there's a plane, I can just wait until he gets back and do a little work for him for a ride. At least to the mainland. From there I can at least run._

_I just want to know what's going on. All I've figured out is the expanding time thing. I think. That still doesn't explain what's going on or how I got here. Some sort of chaos control? Teleporter? Hyper-go-ons?_

_And if I'm here, where's everyone else? Something for tomarrow then, I guess._

* * *

><p><em><strong>At this point, I found an article in town and taped it in here; it quickly was quickly lost.<strong>_

_**Only the headline was important:**_

_._

_**HERO, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, SAVES WEST SIDE ISLAND FROM EVIL SCIENTIST**_

* * *

><p><em>That's today's newspaper. <em>TODAY_.&_

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I went back in time. I'M the one out of his spot in the timeline! Is this an after-effect of the Time Eater being destroyed? But it returned all of us to the present exept fo<em>

_That _was_ the Tornado__ I saw yesterday. After past-me went back, the portal must have moved as it dissipated and caught me._

_THAT'S__ WHY SHADOW TRIED TO PUSH ME OUT OF THE WAY! He must have saw it move!_

_So is Shadow here? Is anyone else here? I didn't see anyone else by the Chem Plant. Since Eggman isn't in there anymore, security should be back in force and should have escorted them out._

_Yeah, the paper says that 'the Zones of the island once under the robot-laden control of Dr. Robotnik are slowly recovering. Security had entered the Chemical Plant, followed shortly by Damage assessment teams shortly after Sonic had passed through.'_

_Unless we've been scattered through time._

* * *

><p><em><strong>I had the rest of the article here, it fell out as well.<strong>_

* * *

><p><em>I never really noticed how far they went out of their way to make sure I wasn't in the paper. I mean, I've -seen the Metropolis and Hill Top newspaper articles on this and both had me on the cover with Sonic.<em>

_Meanwhile, Emerald Town's paper just has a shot of the Death Egg falling and the Tornado flying away. Even the other pictures just have Sonic_

_The reporter is Max's mother. Who else?_

* * *

><p><em>Now that I know that I went back in time, I've been careful. I really don't want anyone here knowing who I really am. While there's a few bad time-traveler things that can happen I just don't want Max and his crew know. I don't want anybody in this town to know that I have 2 tails.<em>

_I don't know if he's seen me yet. I've been through town at least once a day now trying to find a way off the island. Today I found a boat by the shore. It's an old rowboat with no oars but it still floats._

_It's ironic. That was how I dreamed of getting off this island in the first place. I played in that thing for a few days before the guy who owned caught me._

_He wasn't there today._

* * *

><p><em>Not today either.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>That little precious 'gem' of his is going for twenty dollars.<em>

_That little precious gem that he tanned my hide over. That little gem that, he said, was the one thing keeping his family fed. And guess what, _**HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE OARS HE LOST THEM**

_Sure. I have no money. I didn't think to bring my wallet to my best friend's birthday party because I DIDN'T EXPECT TO GET STUCK IN TIME! I really, really should have expected Eggman's scheme, it's just like him to try something on Sonic's birthday. But no, that guy who came with Blaze wasted so much time we were running late and I didn't grab my wallet._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>I'm sure that I can put together an engine from scraps from Metropolis' factories. Shouldn't be that hard to make one that's powerful to get me going.<em>

_I'm not going to buy that stupid boat. I'm going to steal it because they guy doesn't care about it. I really don't think it's his anyway. He just used it as an excuse to beat up a 6-year old kit._

_I'm going to piece together a motor. I'm going to get a job somewhere to buy a few things. I'm going to steal that boat and th_

_It's been 6 days since the Tornado left the island. It took us about 4 weeks to find Angel Island. Getting there is out of the question, but if I remember right, we didn't exactly know where we were going and we used an island West of here as a base. I remember that island because I didn't want to land on __this__ island._

_I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get there, but we stayed there for about 3 weeks, then flew directly to Angel island._

_~15 days._

_I'm going to steal that boat and I'm going to find Sonic. And past-me too. He'll know what to do. We'll figure something out. And even if I do miss them, I'm still off this freaking island. I can catch up with them later._

_I'm going to need measuring tape and a whole lot of paper. Well, got the paper at least._

* * *

><p><em>Job gotten. Murphy's actually far nicer than I thought he would be. With the telephone poles down, he's got me doing a few errands from here to Hill Top. I completely forgot that cell phones hadn't caught on yet. Nevermind the fact that there isn't a tower here.<em>

_It keeps me out of the town, something good._

_It's not like the entire island's a bad place. Just Emerald Town. And it's not that I could go anywhere else: chemical plant, ruins, casino, volcano, hazardous caves, oil ocean, factory…. Emerald Hills was just the safest place for a 6-year-old with no parents. I always wanted to live around Hill Top, but the volcano terrified me. And I'm sure the ruins are still haunted. And I'd rather not go into the caves after that 'dare' Max handed to me. I'm still amazed I went in after Sonic back then._

* * *

><p><em>The first thing that happened today was Max. Thankfully, he didn't really do anything, just looked at me funny, glanced at my tails, and then went back to walking. I still have them tied together. I remember I tried doing that once before, but then again, that was after everyone knew who I was. It didn't work.<em>

_He's as tall as I am now. Or I'm as tall as he is now. Maybe I'm a bit shorter. He's also only one year older than me now. I did my best to ignore him, but I don't know what he'll do. He was set on going somewhere, I'm not sure where. He's not stupid enough to not go to school. Wait school's still out for summer. He was going somewhere and that's the important part._

_Murphy had me doing inventory today in the store and tried to make conversation. The usual stuff, where's my parents, what am I doing here, where exactly do I live. I lied and said that Eggman stranded me here and I'm in the middle of figuring out a way off of the island. He asked me how and I told him my plan. I left out the bit about stealing the boat, but he joked about it anyway._

_He offered me the spare room over the shop. I refused._

_I've always been terrified of old man Murphy. He's a jaguar after all. He was nice to me once in a while, but… I always tried to stay away from him. No wait. It's because some town kids would steal from the shop and blame me for it and all the parents would let them get away with it._

_Never Murphy though. He'd yell at me but it was when I was trying to fit in with all the rest of the kids. Doing those stupid dares that, if I did them, they'd accept me. They never kept their word._

_I'm going to ask Murphy something tomarrow._

* * *

><p><em>I'm so stupid. I never thought that he was yelling at the other kids to leave me alone. I was so used to all the blame being put on me that I'm so STUPID.<em>

_Mr. Murphy is the nicest guy on the island. He was the one that always left the food out in just the right spot at just the right time that I'd take it when no one was around. He was the one who got the kids to leave me alone, even though it only lasted for a week. But all I saw was the snarling and the yelling when all that was happening and ran when I felt he was going into a speech. I also thought he would eat me._

_Talking with him about Tails. He was happy that I got off the island. He was the one who told Sonic about Max after he kinda blew me off the first time. Ultimately, Murphy was the one who started our friendship._

_I just wonder how all this would turn out if I stopped bothering trying to fit in and accepted with the kids and parents that despised me, and listened to an old man who actually cared?_

_I took the room. Turns out, it includes meals. We talked over fish and chips._

* * *

><p><em>Tomarrow's the trek to Metropolis. I got the measurements from the boat. It really shouldn't be that hard to find what I need. And there's no detouring this time either—straight there and back. No Chemical Plant, no Caves, no casino. Still have to go through Hill Top and by Oil Ocean though.<em>

_Murphy's got a few jobs for me to run around up there, mostly some fetching for a few people who live there. He even gave me money for the inn up there._

_I was running around the Chemical Plant today. _Thankfully_ along the actual paths and not through the water. I was confused for Past-Me today though, but the guy quickly realized I was a bit older than him. And 'had' only one tail._

_I really, really wish I could fly everywhere. Maybe around Metropolis. I mean, all the hate I got was from Emerald Town. That small town in Hill Top thought I was adorable and a few of the Metropolis people thought I was helpful. Or at least they put up with me with a smile on their face._

_I miss Sonic. All this stuff going on. Sonic was always there for me to talk to, even if I didn't want him to. But here there's no one. Okay, there's Murphy. But I'm not going to tell him about the fact that I'm living on the island I swore I never return to because I got dumped here by a temporal phenomenon I don't really understand._

_There's alot of damage here. Most of the island has to rebuild in one fashion or another. Chem Plan has containment leaks, Oil Ocean's ben set back months, if not years. There's a minor eruption in Hill Top (there's lava flowing down the mountain) and Metropolis has to completely respect itself back away from creating the Egg-bots._

_Everywhere, Sonic and Tails are heros. Meanwhile, here in Emerald Town, only Sonic is the hero and there is absolutely no mention of the town punching bag ever amounting to more than the feral fox he was._

_It's times like this that I wish I became a pyromaniac back then. I don't think I even dared mention that to Sonic. One day I found a full book of matches. I made a small fire on the beach after going through half of them. And then I realized that I could get Max and everyone else back for all the times they bullies me by taking my little fire and putting it under their house._

_Then I realized that wasn't what Sonic would do and tossed the rest of the matches into the fire. Even before I met him, he helped me in more ways than he could imagine. I'd rather not go through the rest of them._

_Maybe this will help. This journal. I tried doing this before but it takes so much work to just write it all down. Even typing it all down takes a long while and by the time I finish this sentence, I know what I want to say 2 paragraphs down the line._

_I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with this journal when I head to Metropolis. I'll need a few pages for drawing up plans, I can take them from the back so I don't ruin the binding. I'll take ten to be sure. I hope to find just a regular motor somewhere and jury-rig it in a way to make it a boat motor. There's tons of scrap in Metropolis since all of the robot-stuff is being hauled up there to be melted down. Shouldn't be that hard. I can hide this thing somewhere in my room. I can trust Murphy not to find it._

* * *

><p><em>I really should have just gone into the ruins and just grabbed one of the aquatic robots. Since that's ultimately what I ended up with. The motor's not exactly pretty, but we've clocked it running at<em>

_._

_It's fast enough. Overpowered for the rowboat, but I don't really care. With the supplies at the front, it shouldn't flip._

_It turns out there's a whole section in Metropolis devoted to reverse-engineering some of the robots that Eggman built. I _really_ should stop calling him that, it's going to catch on before it should._

_But then again other people had called him that b_

_Oh god._

_Is this a _stable_ time loop. I mean, have I already changed history? No, wait. Nobody ever leaves West Side. It's like Hotel California, except everyone from Lake Wobegon is here on permidant vacation._

_And it's not like it's that creative of a name to begin with._

_The motor should be here in a few days. I couldn't carry it back myself, nevermind with the other stuff I got sent back with. Should be here tomarrow._

_Im ahead of schedual so far._

_9 days remain, and, with the motor, it should only take me, max, 3 to get to the Island. And, say what I want about how terrible Eggman's bots are, they don't fall apart until we make them. So I've got 5 days left. _

_I'll do a few checks on how I'm the motor's going to mount in 2 days, get all the supplies together in 3, and set out in 4. Maybe I can make a makeshift sail as well. Windwaker this like a pro. I remember there only being 1 serious storm happening when Sonic and I were flying around and the forecast says that's tomarrow. West Side seems to be directly in the path, so it might take a few days to blow over. It should be clear sailing when I do get out of here._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Today<em>

_Today wasn't a good day. I was roped into making sure the town doesn't flood from all the rain and the river overflowing. Long story short, I was to check over the Emerald Hills to see how the other rivers were fairing, and then to the ruins to check on them. I know why they sent me, I've been all over West Side lately. But I don't know why they sent Max with me._

_The first thing he does is congratulate me on having 1 tail, then starts berating Past-Me. The usual names: freak, feral, mutant so on and so forth._

_And then he starts calling Sonic a freak as well._

_According to him, Sonic's speed is his second tail. According to him, Sonic somehow caused Eggman. Not __just__ bringing Eggman to West Side, but somehow made Eggman escalate to who he was then. is now?_

_He also called Eggman a freak because of how smart he was._

_And then it all came back to me when he noted that Past-Me fixed Sonic's plane on his own, and then doubly condemed me. Then tripe-ly condemed me for being as fast as Sonic._

"_Freaks attract freaks. And freaks cause freaks. And with all these freaks, us normal people suffer. Get rid of the freaks, and thinks like _that _won't happen."_

_But at least I only have 1 tail._

_No matter how many times I tried to get us back the task at hand he derails on another rant on how I look like Tails._

_I had enough by the time we were walking past Chemical Plant and directly asked him what his problems was. He think I'm Tails brother and was wondering if 'the freak' ran in the family._

_No matter what I said, he acted like I was deflecting the question. He kept going on and on. _

"_I _have_ to wonder how your guzes parents and sisters and brothers got along with him. Actually, they dumped him here so forget that. So what are you? The guy who _actually_ cared for him? Or, was the entire family one big freakshow and you ran away as well? Don't worry, if the world has any sense, they'd hunt all the freaks down."_

_I nearly hit him, then I realized that he was trying to comfort me, as if I was the black sheep of the family. The only 'normal' one who hates the rest of his family. Saying it as he walked away from me, shrugging._

_So I punched him. I punched him after he turned back around so he knew it was coming so he wouldn't call me a coward._

_He didn't go flying down the hill like I wanted. He didn't even flinch, he didn't take a step back, he didn't _do_ anything that I wanted him to do. He just scoffed, turned and walked away._

"_Knew it." He said._

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p><em>And then<em>

_I I couldn't_

_._

_I screamed and tackled him, but he caught me. He caught me and dragged me to the cliff and, just before he threw me off, "One less damned freak in the world. One less problem."_

_He didn't watch me fall, so I untied my tails and caught myself before I landed in the rapids. I flew to the ruins, did the survey, then returned on my own._

_I walked straight into town, my tails untied. I pushed aside all the people who looked at me twice and felt the hate start to rise. I walked straight up to Max just as he was telling the Mayor of what was going on, how I slipped and fell into the water._

_I didn't bother punching him this time. I just interrupted, gave my report, said that Max really shouldn't throw people off cliffs because not all of them can fly, and walked away, back into Murphy's shop and to my room._

_None of these morons are worth any of this. None of them._

_I don't care what they do._

_I am not that little 6-year-old! I know how to defend myself. I know they can't just get away with discrimination, no matter if the entire town is a pot of racism._

_They can't just do this to me! They can't!_

_And the worst part is that I already know why they do all this: They just d&._

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

_&.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>I went out today, just to show that they can't deter me. It was still raining when I set out and I didn't come back until night.<em>

_I made a sail. The flooding crated alot of debris along the riverbanks and I found small sail in 1 pile. It had a hole in it, but I patched it with a bit of cloth I found in another. I had to improvise a needle and thread, but it worked. Hopefully._

_The rigging I made from saplings and random parts of robots to reinforce it. I'll have to find some actual rope if I want to tie the thing, but it's a sail. I'll have to see how it goes. I hung the fabric part in 1 of my hiding places to dry out._

_There were some people waiting for me when I got back to stop me entering town. They were bluffing, I walked right by them. I didn't care what they were going to try._

_Murphy was waiting when I came back._

_It doesn't matter if he says he's on my side, he just launches into a lecture. He was trying to be caring, but all I saw was the snarling again. At least he caught himself this time._

_I know he really is on my side and I know that I made a mistake not tying my tails when I came back. But I'm sick and tired of being controlled and manipulated by everyone! I'm not going to hide anymore, at least my tails. I'm not going to let them know I am Tails, I'm not that stupid._

_I want to go home._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Even Murphy slowly becoming a target for the town. The only ones who come into the store are tourists now, maybe 1 of the adults once or twice to pick up something they can't get anywhere else. I've even ran into a few walking to the Chemical Plant town to shop there.<em>

_It's 1 thing for people to hate me. I don't like it but I can put up with it. But they're going after Murphy. He told me not to worry about it, but. I got to wonder what would have happened to him if he did take me in when I was 6. Or before then even. If this is what happens overnight, what would happen to him in a few years?_

_That boat is still there, I made sure of it. If the guy is there, I don't care. The motor's an easy fit, I've got my supplies together and I have a cover to keep out of the sun. Murphy even threw in some sunscreen for me._

_I'm supposed to leave tomorrow. I'm leaving now._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>The only thing better than stealing the boat, is stealing it while the guy watched in that drunken stupor he always is in.<em>

_So yeah. I'm on the water right now. Not too far out right now. I tested the motor, went in a few circles. Double-checked my supplies, put the cover in place over my spot next to the engine. I borrowed a few yards of rope from 1 of the yahts. I'm just making sure I can actually write bobbing around out here._

_I snuck out easy. Murphy was asleep. Fitted the motor and got out here without any issue. I want to just leave, but I'm feeling guilty about just leaving in the middle of the night._

_Honestly, I thought he would meet me on the shore. That's how it always works, right?_

_It doesn't matter. I left him a few pages back in my room. He can read them. I'm not going back to that island. Not now. Not ever again._

_It's about… 1 in the morning. Got a map, got a flashlight, got a com_

_I don't have my compass. Great._

* * *

><p><em>Murphy had the compass. He was waiting for me back at the shop. And we had that goodbye I didn't want to have.<em>

_With the compass he gave me 2 other things, a knife, and a pair of aviator goggles. I should have expected the knife, it's silly to go onto the sea without one (even if it's more like a small daggar, with one of those things you put the blade into). But the goggles I'm not sure where he got them from. _

_I think I mentioned trying to build a plane over dinner once. Then again, I can fly on my own. Either way, they're a good set of goggles._

_He also made me promise not to come back to West Side, that the predijust towards Tails created or strenthened some sort of dogma that's going to erupt sooner or later. And not for the better. He also told me to catch up to Sonic and Tails, he thinks Past-Me is my brother and I let him think that. To look over Tails for him. And then he saw me off._

_Sonic's always been like a brother to me, but Mr. Murphy. He's like the grandfather I never had, even if only for a few days._

_Actually, he was always looking out for me, even if I didn't know it. I just wish I could have had the heart to tell him that I was Tails. But we both were crying too much._

_I can't see West Side anymore, but I watched the old jaguar fade over the horizon. I know he watched me go too._

* * *

><p><em>Day 1 on the ocean.<em>

_With rationing, I'll make the island with a full day's worth of supplies to spare, and a day to spare to boot. If something happens to the boat, so long as I can see the island, I can fly the rest of the way. If I can't see it, well_

_The motor's running smooth. It kinda spooks me once in a while, but I know enough about Eggman's robots to know how they run. A few of the early models had a few hiccups, this was 1 of them. I never thought I'd be using one of these like this though._

_It keeps me awake at least. Flying is one thing, there's always something to check and more directions to go in besides left, right, or forward. When you fly, you can look down and watch the landscape go by._

_But this boat. All I got to do is make sure we go West. I don't even need to fill up the gas tank—just put a live fish in the robot and it runs off its life energy. The thing even runs when there's water in the animal chamber._

_I'm going to eat it anyway. It's not a little animal…._

_Okay, so I might have eaten rabbit when I could catch one and such rabbits might have been th_

_I'm just going to stop writing now._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>So, as it turns out, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to origami.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Paper airplanes are always fun though.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Day 2.<em>

_At least in Windwaker there's stuff that attacks you when you sail. It's not like I _want_ to be attacked by a giant octopus out here. But_

_Weather's clear and cloudless. Sonic could hide in the sky on a day like today._

_Actually, Sonic could hide anywhere out here. There's so much blue it's not even funny. And I'm _orange_ in a brown and slightly green boat! I stick out like a sore thumb woo._

_The engine's holding up. I think the sputter is when the fish flops a little bit. But then again, even running on direct power the older models still had the sputter. It was like it was short-circuiting every so often, sparking across a specific point and if I fixed that, the thing didn't work_

_Is it _shocking_ the fish? Why would it _do_ that? To make sure it's alive or is it how it extra_

_Now I feel bad. But how else am I going to get to the island in time._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Still terrible at origami. It's like, I'm making a swan! No, it's the blob.<em>

_I don't know how I'm going to get back to my time. If Eggman was behind this, he's show his face by now. And even if he did, I don't know how he got out of the Void in the first place, either of them! Or maybe this was some weird side-effect of him getting out of the Void? I really don't like that idea._

_I didn't name the boat. I heard somewhere that it's bad luck to have a boat without a name and I didn't name the boat._

_The 'Gem.' It certainly isn't one, but I've got to give credit where its due. If only so I don't forget how I got back at that jerk._

_I'm here. The island, I can see it just over the horizon._

_There! Do you not see what looms over the horizon? This is much better than Windwaker._

_Itll still take me a while to get there. Not as long as it took for West Side to disappear, this island doesn't have such a high mountain._

_East Side Isl Why is East Side Island WEST of West Side? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_The plane is there! I can see the Tornado! Theyre there! They're still there! I'm almost to the island!_

_Now I just need to figure out where Sonic and Past-Me are. I can't remember much of East Side, just that we were there for a little bit._

_I'm nervous. Yeah, I met Past-Sonic and Past-Me back during the Time Eater thing but_

_I'm as old as this Sonic. I think. I know he'll know what to do, but I'm just not sure what._

_The thing is, if I meet Sonic like this, how does this work? If Science Fiction is anything to go by, it'll just make a different reality, another timeline where there's two Tails in it and_

_I'm going to have to live through the six years again._

_No, there's always a catch to this. Always some way to get back home and cheat the system. It always happens, not just in Sci-Fi. We've had our butts saved by it a few times as well._

_What it is, I just don't know._

_Doesn't matter right now, I'm here._

_Now to find myself and Sonic._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Every time I try to write this, I just<em>

_I'm_

_It didn't work. I was stupid. Stupid!_

_Every single time-travel thing says don't go meeting your past self! And what do I do? I go directly to my past self!_

_Okay, so maybe the Time Eater thing didn't have this provision, but maybe there was something else going on that stopped that. Something about the Time Eater itself that kept reality working during and after it._

_But here, no. No!_

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Every time I write this, I get mad at myself and I just.<em>

_This is_

_I don't even know how many times I tries this. I try to write but I can't keep a solid thought. I don't know if it's because of how frustrated I am or if it's some lingering thing from _

_from THAT._

_Sonic and Past-Me are gone. They're off chasing Eggman to Angel Island._

_What happened._

_A paradox happened._

_I found Sonic first. He recognized me and kinda understood what had happened. I think. I suggested that we go to Angel Island and hunt down the Chaos Emeralds. I had to tell him it was the place that Sky Sanctuary and Knuckles are from to get him to understand._

_Okay._

_Okay._

_So we head and find where I was. Past-Me, I mean. I/He had to find something to fix the plane's landing gear with. Apparently their landing here wasn't as smooth as it should have been._

_And then it happened. I_

_I can't remember what happened exactly happened at that moment. I don't think I want to. But it hurt. It hurt so much and when I close my eyes there's_

_I see something and I don't know what._

_But it happened fast. So fast._

_When I stopped being dizzy, Sonic and Past-Me were frozen. Paralyzed._

_And then I saw Eggman. Past-Eggman. Right there. Right with us. He came from_

_He came from it. The paradox. He came out of it. He was frozen in time too._

_And then I realized it wasn't just us, but everything around us was frozen. Everything but me._

_And then everything_

* * *

><p><em>Everything started moving backwards. Like time was rewinding, but not the way it should have. Sonic didn't walk from the trees as he did with me. Eggman acted like he was there all along. An entire scene happened in front of me, backwards, completely unaware I was there.<em>

_And then, I_

_I don't know what, but I f__elt __like I shouldn't be there. I ran._

_I ran until I passed out._

_I don't know what happened. I'm not sure. I think the paradox undid reality until the afternoon I landed on the island. I mean. I watched myself._

_ME, not Past-Tails. ME! I watched _me_ land on the island. And then that-me disappeared into the brush. Literally, I followed that-me and he wasn't there anymore. I don't really understand. The air was charged with something and everything I don't know.  
><em>

_Eggman flew away during the afternoon, about 4 hours before I landed. I don't know where the Eggmobile came from. The Tornado lifted off _right_ as that-me diasppeders. I can't remember what happened when i was Past-Me, but there was a lot of robot scrap around. It was like Eggman attacked us with an army, and then retreted.  
><em>

_And here I am._

_That was a week ago._

_I've had this headache since then. I've been waking up srceaming and in cold sweats but I can't remember why. And any time I try to remember what happened the headache just gets worse._

_I can't think straiht. I keep looking at the words and tehy slide around on the paper, what they actually mean barely retisgergng._

_Someone brought me to the hospital here a few days ago. They've been giving me something for the pain, but they can't cure something that isn't in my had._

_This isn't in my head._

_This ins't in head._

_Wa s hppeniaing?_

_I can't write sraitgt._

* * *

><p><em>Te Doors want o lo at my journal buI won let hem.<em>

_._

_I can't let anyone know I'm aTls. If they realiz it, another padox ll happen._

* * *

><p><em>&amp;.<br>_

* * *

><p><em>Today's better. <em>

_Today is much much better.  
><em>

_I did a test page, writing something I remember from Shakespeare to make sure I can write. It was supposed to be the grave-digger scene from Hamlet, but all I could really remember was the "Alas, Poor Yorik, I knew him Horatio." line. I made up the rest. The nurses thought it was funny. They're always around and so hard to write in here._

_Apparently I was out for three days that time._

_Apparently I've been here for a month and they don't know what's wrong with me. At least I kept an iron grip on this thigng. Thing. THING. **T H I N**__** G**__. What is a thigng? Something to do with Chthulu? _

_By now, Sonic and Tails should be somewhere in that pyramid. I think._

_I know we're in there._

_I mean. I _know_. I can remember everything._

_I mean, I remember everything perfectly. Everything since we left this island, I can remember._

_The access code to the flying battery's generator was 0685-EGG4. Eggman's machine in Mushroom Hills was called the Jet Mobile and we had interrupted it before it had reached full potential. It's satellite siphoned Vim from the Hills via a sort of osmosis that used compounds in the air comprised of ozone to relay the Vim to the Jet Mobile. The original design was to fire lasers at us from the satellite but it didn't have enough power. Even though osmosis deals with water through permeable membranes and he probably meant diffusion, it's what Eggman had on his blueprints because he believes that life force has more liquid properties than solid.  
><em>

_There's more. There's so much more. I_

_It's like I think of a time or a place or a thing, and everything flies at me in my mind. Where I was, everything I knew then, everything I knew later and before about anything and everything._

_Even passwords that I had completely forgotten. Lottery numbers, stocks, who wins the world series, exactly where I had left my keys. Exactly where I left my wallet. Anything and everything anyone had said at any time.  
><em>

_Everything in the world that I once knew, I know. NOW. All of it. Everything, for the next 6 years I know it._

_Global events, news, city populations, birth rates, death rates._

_Death counts._

_Eggman, over the course of the 6 years, he killed an estimated thirty-four million, five hundred fourty-nine thousand, one hundred ninty-three people with unknown amounts of injured. Caused at least five _quadrillion_ dollars of damage global, most from the moon meteorites and the Dark Gaia Split. Even after nearly 5 years after the Chaos attack, Station Square is still only a fourth of what it was, nations worldwide are still dealing with moon meteorites. Nevermind the his fleet from the Metal Sonic incident crashing and exploding._

_And he was sealed in the Void at the end of it._

_And I just let him loose._

_I just freed Eggman._

_I just feed Eggman_

_I ufs defd _

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

* * *

><p>&amp;.<p>

* * *

><p><em>5 years, 8 months, 27 days, 9 hours, 15 minutes.<em>

_That's how long it will take for me to reach when I got yanked back. Along with knowing everything and anything I once knew at the drop of a hat, apparently the Paradox put a mental clock in as well._

_I was out for 2 months, 15 days, 2 hours, 57 minutes and 4 seconds._

_From what the doctors told me, they couldn't do much with me. I was clearly in some sort of coma, but every time they tried to draw blood I would have a fit. Any time they'd touch me or my journal I would tense and the heart monitor would go crazy._

_What did the paradox do to me?_

_It's almost like it's_

_Like it's given me everything I need to avoid another. Know where I am so I won't meet myself. Know everything so I won't get in the way. Whatever happened with the doctors so, I dunno, so they can't figure out that I'm him?_

_I don't understand. I just don't._

_By now, Eggman's during his dark year, where he would be prepping for his next attack—the Chaos Incident. He certainly has a lot to build.  
><em>

_In 1 year, 2 months, 4 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes and 7 seconds, there won't be a Station Square anymore._

_Deaths will rate about 50k. A large number, but many were evacuated after Eggman's missile attack in case there was another, and there was some warning before Perfect Chaos erupted. There just was not enough time for everyone to take heed._

_Costs. Okay, I never actually knew that one. Weird. Dozens of Billions, definitely.  
><em>

_But that's what's going to happen and I'm not sure if I can actually do anything. DEFINITELY not stopping him. As much as I want to._

_What am I going to do?_

_I've got about $3,000 of hospital bills to pay, that's what. Somebody sold my engine to help pay it off, but, at current market price for reprocessed Eggbot parts, that only covered about $2,351.17. The boat was, of course, $20 for the lumber. Aside from the food and supplies, I still have everything else. Knife, goggles, compass, gloves, shoes, and a wallet of $100. And this journal, of course.  
><em>

_Island's too small for public healthcare to cover everything, they rely on patient's health insuracne here to help out. Something like that, my head's still spinning slightly. Besides, I won't be getting Health Insurance for another 6 months, 4 days, 18 hours. Toss in another month exactly for them to actually give me the plan and another 2 months and 12 days for it to come into effect._

_I'm going to need to figure a lot of things out. I'm going to need a job, a new name, a new journal, and a new pen._

_Apparently, my 'representative' does has a job for me. From what I hear, he's some sort of go-getter with a heart of fool's gold. _

_Apparently, he's also the guy who put up collateral for the rest of my bill. Apparently, he's charging me interest.  
><em>

_I'll start there. __It's not like I have a choice. __It's not like I can get off this island and they all know it.  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>Did this chapter NOT make sense? Confused about what all the '&amp;.' things and the line breaks were? YOU DIDN'T READ THE PRE-CHAPTER NOTES!<strong>  
><strong>Now MiniTails is crying! How could you?<strong>

**_Anyway_, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter we return to the normal story format.**

**Now, if you excuse me, I have to** **run before the site eats me for, oh, thinking outside the box on how a story is to be portrayed.**


	8. Westopolis

7

Westopolis

Westopolis had come far from the devastation that the Black Arms had wreaked upon it over two and a half years ago. Between government funding, private and anonymous grants, and Eggman, of all people, providing a robotic labor force, most of the rubble had been cleared, destroyed buildings taken down, and the city slowly rebuilt itself from the ground up.

While its population was decimated, people gathered from the surrounding areas, having returned to find them ravaged by the attacks. And even though Westopolis was but a third of what it was, it was still the pinnacle of the Reconstruction efforts.

In the center of the city was the Memorial Park, a culmination of ideas from all over the world on how to remember those lost in the attacks at the place it all started.

A few shopping bags in both hands, Miles led Tails through the pathways. The older fox looking at the halls of white stone with the named victims were listed, the younger looking past the bag in his arms to the pool where hundreds of lit candles of all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles floated. They burned silently, whittling down the wax until it burned through the little boat it sat on with a small plume of smoke, then sank; an unknown victim, name lost to time.

"I don't like it here," Tails said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Miles sighed. "I just wanted to see if…."

He looked up to see the one ruined building left alone this far deep into Westopolis. A single, thirty foot section of a wall, a skeleton of steel and blackened concrete resting in a hill, separated from the park by a railing and a thin moat with several small fountains.

Rows and rows of flowers surrounded it, patterned in the flags of the world over the dome of the hill with the wall in the middle of it. The starting growths of ivy and vines slowly crept up the base of the wall, the highest tendrils curling around the lowest windowsills, the leaves slowly bobbing in the breeze.

Miles shifted the bags to his left hand and ran his right along the wooden railing, circling the structure until his hand bumped into the plaque. He stopped mid-step, then turned to face the wall, closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed a ragged and long sigh.

Tails looked from him to between the metal fence to the wall. His ears flicked as he noticed others on the other opposite side of the ring doing the same, one visibly crying. Slowly, he closed his head and bowed his head.

"Alright," Miles said, voice breaking. He coughed. "Alright." He looked down, and smiled sadly at the kit until the little one looked back up. Miles nodded away and they continued down the path.

"What is this—"

"Shh, not here," Miles said quietly. "A memorial like this…." He faded off and shook his head.

They continued down the path, Miles nodding to those they passed by. They double-taked at the two twin-tailed foxes, then exchanged glances with whoever else they walked with.

"…did…" Tails started but faded, looking down and away, watching the archway at the end of the park pass them.

Miles lifted a hand to scratch his forehead. "Don't worry about it, Skye. I… just haven't been here in a while…. I've been putting it off." He glanced around, not a single soul. Not that uncommon in this city, it being early in the afternoon.

"What do you mean?"

Miles looked down, "The last time I was here… it's the reason that park exists in the first place." He sighed. "Anyway," He said on a more upbeat tone. "Ice cream. I promised you ice cream. You up for ice cream?"

Tails nodded.

* * *

><p>"I really should have seen this coming," Miles groaned.<p>

"Oh, come on now," Silver scoffed, narrowing his eyes. "I like sprinkles."

"They're _purple_!"

"You have purple sprinkles on yours."

"Only about…. Five. Maybe fifteen. _Meanwhile._ You have enough purple there to make Blaze jealous."

"Really?" Silver raised an eyebrow, studying his bowl of ice cream with a careful eye, "I thought if I got enough, she'd just appear." Silver looked up, Miles looked back, shaking his head. "That was absolutely terrible, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah."

They burst out laughing.

"You're up earlier than I'd thought," Miles said, pulling out a chair for Tails to hop up on before sitting down himself at the secluded, outside table. "What happened, Vanilla throw you out?"

"Blaze, actually," Silver shrugged. "It's not like I _want_ to be up, those beds are comfy!"

"_Oh,_ yeah," Miles laughed. "So what are you doing around here? Hate to tell you, you kinda stick out like a sore thumb with your crown there."

"Says the guy with two tails," Silver countered. "I hate to tell _you_, but before you got here, I talked to a rather cute girl. Meanwhile, they look at your tails, stop, then fawn over Tails because he's so widdle and_ adorable._"

Tails looked up from his ice cream, "Well, I can get hugs all the time at least—hugs without… without... without…." He faded out and shrunk slightly.

Silver blinked. Miles blinked. They exchanged glances before a grin broke out over their faces.

"Burrrrrn!" They pointing at each other laughing. The little kit sat up, giggling.

"That was good," Silver grinned. "The little guy wins this round." He glanced to Miles, "You really were a natural at this."

"Natural, maybe, but that's enough cheap shots around Skye, alright?" Miles shook his head. "But one last thing, the girl behind the counter here? Doesn't count." Silver snapped his fingers. "But really, why're you here?"

"Come on, Miles, I haven't seen you in what, a year? I mean, I was nice and let you get caught up with everyone else but—"

"Aw, thanks," Miles nodded. "Good to see Blaze as polite as ever."

"Gee, _thanks_," Silver scowled, "Okay, fine. She made me—"

"Ha!"

"Miles, seriously. Enough."

"I'm sorry, I really missed messing with ya."

"Likewise. But really, you're out here shopping and getting ice cream. _Really_ good ice cream. I figured, I'd stop by and help alleviate the horrors of spelunking in the supermarket."

"Oh, god, those aisles," Miles shivered. "The Club Card deals…! Did you know they had buy-one-get-one on fish?"

"Not the fish!"

"The fish! It's like, if I buy two, I get four—but I'm just paying for two so how can four equal two. Paradoooooooox, _agh_!"

"You guys are weird," Tails said. Miles and Silver exchanged glances.

Silver leaned over to Miles. "You do realize he's in the lead with two now, right?" He asked quietly.

"Shh, we'll figure something out. Right now, let him think he's the best. Okay? Okay."

Tails giggled and stirred his ice cream.

"But _really_, what've you been up to?" Silver asked.

"Besides not ending the world?" Miles shrugged. "Stuff."

"…such stuff entails…."

"Well, besides the usual journal writing and such," Miles started, putting his spoon down to count off on his fingers. "I've been working on a few holotechnology things, I've made a new power source that _won't_ blow up next to a Sol Emerald."

"Yeah, Blaze told me about that and the traveler-thingie."

"I still got to get that thing to work on the new power source. …there's a few… other things, but they mostly involve my companies and logistics so I'll leave those out."

Silver blinked, "Companies? You founded companies in a _redundant timeloop?_"

"So _that's_ what you call living the six years over again," Miles smirked. "I didn't _mean_ for them to go anywhere, but suddenly, they kinda just took off."

Silver frowned enough that it was comical.

Miles glanced at Tails, "Silver's job back where he's from is to… Silver, is there a summary that _doesn't_ take a half hour to explain?"

"My world's timeline is in constant flux. Stuff happens that shouldn't, I go back in time and fix it."

"So basically Silver's the know-it-all when it comes to time-stuff," Miles concluded.

"And Mr. Know-it-all is amazed you _didn't_ cause another paradox," Silver sighed, tossing his spoon into his empty bowl. "I want to strangleyou, Miles. _Strangle_."

"It's a stable loop, Silver. I already changed the past the first time I went through the six years. If it means anything, I was just this mythical CEO that, occasionally, gave orders to—"

"Isn't there, like, a board of directors though?" Silver butted in.

"Corporate Corruption, though it is an absolute horror normally but when used right, is a marvelous thing."

"I give up," Silver groaned, hitting his head on the table.

"_Thank_ you," Miles sighed, shaking his head. "They were all robots anyway, one of the things I gotta fix." He looked over to Tails and recognized the look on his face, "What's up?"

"Can I go play in the playground?" Tails asked, pointing across the street. "I'll be careful. I'll look both ways across the street and everything. And I won't fly, just like you said."

Miles smiled, "Go on, but I want to see you from here, kay?"

"Yay!" Tails hopped off his chair and ran to the stoplight.

"Why don't you want him flying?" Silver asked, propping his head up on a hand.

"Draws more attention to him than I want right now," Miles said, watching Tails. "We've been getting more than passing glance from most people. A few asked if we're Tails' brothers."

"And your answer…?"

"Skye is his cousin, but, for me, it's best if they wait for tomorrow's paper."

"Right, Skye," Silver drummed the table. "Blaze told me about that to. Man, I miss _everything_."

"Nothing new there," Miles muttered. Tails crossed with the light on a completely empty street. "Alright, there he goes." He looked back to Silver. "…what?"

"So how goes parenthood—"

"Oh, _shut up._"

Silver cackled a few times then nodded an apology, "No, but really. How is he taking this?"

"He doesn't want to show it, but he's really taken back by it all," Miles sighed. "I'm surprised he wanted to head over there, but then again, we're weird, right?"

"Hell, yeah. Weirdo's fivever, bro." He held his fist out. "…don't do that?" He let it fall to the table.

"I'm going to _gut _you if you ever do that stupid fivever thing again. Is there any time-sickness things I should be looking out for."

"There's no such thing as time sickness. But little kid like him?" Silver shook his head then sighed, "The biggest shock would be the sudden appearances of loved ones not fitting the memories that he has."

"Yeah, we talked about that one—with Sonic not being the Sonic he remembers."

"Well, good. I mean, you're talking to him about it. How does everyone else differ from what he remembers?"

Miles bit his lip, "Uh, Silver? It's just Sonic."

"Hasn't talked about anyone—"

"No. Silver. Sonic was my _only_ friend back then."

Silver blinked, "…say again?"

"The point in time he came from? I had just finished my first adventure with Sonic, before I met him, everyone in the town I lived by despised me."

Silver blinked, "…say again?"

"I'm serious, Silver," Miles said solemnly, glancing back to Tails, he was on the swings. While the playground wasn't that crowded with kids, he at least had someone else on the swing set with him. Miles rubbed his jaw, "Sonic was my first friend, and Skye doesn't really register Sonic as being really Sonic."

Silver sighed, looking down at the table, rubbing the top of his muzzle.

"Well then," He said after a minute, tossing his hands up. "There goes the case file I was using."

"This happened over there?"

"Yeah, once. The debrief goes that an agent was waiting for the exit Paradox—the thing that whips us back to the present after we fix the thing we went back for, remember? An eight-year-old got caught up in it and, well. Welcome to the present."

"You couldn't just send him back?"

"Miles, you know how our time travel things work—they work because something went wrong to begin with. We find when, we go back, we fix it, and Paradox ourselves back to the present because, well, there's no reason for us to be back there and the universe just spits us back out when we need to be. If there's no issue for us to go back and fix, we _can't go back_. The kid's disappearance wasn't an issue—he was missing for fifteen years." Silver scoffed, "_Now_ I know why you wanted to know all of that last year."

"I don't need the refresher, Silver. It's only been a year and impossible to forget after all the charts you pulled out."

"But with Skye, this is a whole other ball of wax. …that is the right idiom here? I was talking with Vanilla last night about the culture here."

"Think so, I never really understood why that one means what it does anyway," Miles shrugged and looked back to the playground. Tails was visibly laughing with the other children on the swings. "…well, at least it's easier for him to make friends of his own age here." Back to Silver, "You were talking to Vanilla 'about the culture here?' What does that even mean?"

"You know what I mean," Silver rolled his eyes. "Blaze is one thing, she doesn't talk and generally keeps to herself. But I kinda need to, I figured I might as well not stick out more than I do by using way wacked-out tubular words, yo."

"Please, _please_ tell me there was _not_ a point in time in your world where—"

"That's from _here_, Miles."

"_Don't_ tell me that either. I don't need to be reminded of that."

"That reminds _me_ though," Silver glanced around. "You were Paradoxed?"

Miles let out a long sigh, "…who told you?"

"Sonic," both said together. Silver continued, "Blaze mentioned my job to him and he kinda did a theoretical question, but really. Who does that fool? …don't tell me you met your past-self?"

Miles tossed a shrug and a glance to Silver.

Silver groaned and hit his head on the table, "Come on, even _here_ that's an obvious thing NOT to do. No _wonder_ why you and Sonic can't remember any of that—the paradox erased you guys' memory!"

"I didn't have a single problem while the Time Eater was going on. Not afterward. And definitely not now."

"Well, _yeah_. That's bec— …okay, let's try this."

"Ho boy, here we go," Miles muttered, rolling his eyes but moving to face Silver fully.

"The past is a line leading up to a single dot, the present," he drew a line on the table with his finger. "That line representing the past can be any shape, as long as it doesn't cross itself."

"I thought the past was a vibrating string and parts of it just stop, creating the nonsense you have to go back to fix."

"That's for _my_ world's past. _Yours_ doesn't have that wonderful Catalyst screwing everything up."

"Right that," Miles nodded. "You guys find it yet?"

"The past is a line. The present's a dot," He put a finger down on the table. Miles laughed.

"Still a touchy subject I see."

"_The future_ is everything around that dot, up down, every way except where the line is behind it." Silver continued determinedly, slightly glaring at Miles. "And, depending on what action the present takes, the line moves in that direction and so on and so forth.

"So," Silver continued, "if something from the past is brought to the present—or even something from the future. If they're brought to the present, reality can react appropriately without breaking because it can go in any direction. Only if it's the future-to-present, the line goes in a completely different direction from where the future thing came from, creating another timeline and headaches for the guys who have to fix it."

"But, technically, I went Future-to-Present."

"Nonononono… well…" Silver looked away and scratched his temple.

"…the correct line is: time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, stuff," Miles said flatly.

"I—just _give_ me a second!"

"Wibbly-wobbly."

Silver huffed, rolling his eyes and rubbing his forehead, "The fact that you were Paradoxed means I'm right. I just—you went Present-to-Past, there's a difference. Present-to-Past, that line is there, concrete. Future-to-Present, there is no line yet."

"Yeah, but, back then, there wasn—"

"No! Do you want to know _why_ the entire 'Don't Meet Yourself' thing exists? _Viewpoint_! You went back in time and for you—and only you back then—there is a line for your entire past, you just looped back into that timeframe. But! So long as you don't meet yourself, the lines _don't meet either._ _BUT!_ For everyone else, it's Future-to-Present, so the line can react any way it wants to. Viewpoint! Viewpoint is critical."

"…okay, now you lost me."

"Good! Why?"

"Because I'm confused."

"_Exactly._"

"And now I'm confused more than ever," Miles groaned.

"Why do you think reality breaks? Same reason a computer has an error—because it doesn't know what to do. Sometimes, the line splits, one where the time-traveller comes from, another where reality says, screw it we're going with it, and another where reality just gets rid of the issue completely."

"Silver. The plot, I think you're losing it. I'm pretty sure you're contradicting yourself now."

"Good, you picked that up," Silver nodded, a half-crazed grin on his face. "I mean me contradicting myself—I'm already crazy."

"Clearly. But tell me what happened with _me_, not everything that could ever happen."

"Fine," Silver sighed, "From what Sonic told me, you met yourself, you paradox'd, history went on like it should without the effects of the Past-to-Present thing with the Time Eater. Anything else I should know?"

"Reality kinda undid itself for a good six hours, then resumed without my interference—I even saw myself." Silver's face lit up and he visibly relaxed. "…_now_ you're scaring me. Why."

"Other than the fact that all this was supposed to happen, nothing."

Miles blinked, "Say again."

"That amount of rewind is reality _rationally_ mitigating a paradox but undoing everything that lead up to it. If Reality _rationally_ deals with a paradox, that means it was invoked to undo another and even the scales. You were _supposed_ to be tossed back in time."

Miles leaned in. "Say. Again."

Silver hesitated, then said carefully, "It wasn't an accident, Miles. But there just wasn't anything anyone can do. Not me, not you—either of you, not Shadow. Just like that kid getting sucked to my present, it was to happen. It _had_ to happen, and it had to be you, no one else."

"Why."

"_I don't know_," Silver shook his head. "Listen, I've been trained to know every single knee-jerk reaction reality can do, and it can do anything—and I mean it. It's _Reality_. It can do anything from _create time_, to make a humpback whale and a pot of petunias appear out of nowhere in orbit to make a bowl of ice cream taste much more amazing than it should. And the worst thing about everything I said? It's wrong. It's completely, and utterly wrong because _reality is weird_. Just when we think we understand it, it changes _because_ we understood it _because_ we're not supposed to understand it."

"So you're saying that there is no rhyme or reason to everything and anything and the ultimate answer is, in fact, not forty-two, but to know that we can't know. Hmm."

"Basically." Silver huffed. "…but really, the important part is that you're back when you're belong. Yeah, age difference notwithstanding. There wasn't anything you could do either time to stop you going back. Reality just did it and you can't stop Reality."

"Yeah, I know," Miles sighed. "I mean, the nothing I could do bit. I accepted what happened a long time ago. But I just wanted to know _why_, you know? It was hell. I mean…" he looked back to Tails and the small group of kids play around the jungle gym. "I was here when the Black Arms attacked. I was here for the entire thing except for a few recons and runs elsewhere to find supplies. The journal that covers it…" he shook his head. "I burned it. I burned it just I was evacuated with the rest of the survivors after the end. I don't need a journal to be reminded what happened then.

"…how many survived?"

"At first, the tally was eighty-nine thousand, nine hundred and two. About three-fourths of that were evacuated during the initial attack, but the rest of us were abandoned as the Black Arms just poured into the city. There was an estimated ten thousand, even, still in the city. Only three thousand, two hundred seventy-nine made it through the entire onslaught. But… there was a sort of plague or parasite that infected most of them. In the end, only my band of six hundred and fifty-five is alive today because _I made damned sure we would_.

Miles huffed sadly, "Silver, there were five hundred thousand, six hundred forty-five people living in this city the day the Black Arms attacked, plus another two thousand tourists. GUN sent in about ten thousand troops, but only four came out." He shook his head sadly. "There's a reason the Memorial is here. …there's a reason those companies of mine funded a bulk of the Reconstruction.

"As we were being evacuated, I couldn't help but think that if this was really the reason I was sent back. To save lives? Every disaster, I'm there. Not as me, but as somebody unimportant. An anonymous caller, an alarmist in the street, a suddenly vocal scientist warning of whatever. I was the one who started the evacuations and then watch it all happen from after. ...is this Fate or Reality or whatever trying to even something out on the scales somewhere? To save the lives of all these people? Or was I really just a tool to Paradox Eggman back into existence? I've already done it once… I'm terrified I'll do it again."

Silver took a minute, then sighed. "I know you're not the one to monologue for no reason, Miles. But I just can't think of anything to say. I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright," Miles shook his head. "It's just Westopolis. I always have a lot on my mind when I come here. Walking through Memorial Park, it helps . Somehow. Okay. Listen, I _have_ talked to others about it. Shrinks, counseling sessions. I have made peace. Moving on!"

"Gladly. You have Walker's Curse, don't you?" Silver asked. "After that paradox, you can remember anything and everything you experienced before the time-warp."

Miles smiled grimly as he watched Tails again, "Is that what you call it? Wow, that fits."

"It happens to agents who fail their missions. Since they're not supposed to be there—Present-to-Past— and because the Exit Paradox won't occur, they get caught up in…. basically, stuff happens. If they survive it, they have Walker's Curse. …and you did a good job with it.

"Well, thanks for sucking all the magic out of my entire freaking story here."

"'s my job," Silver shrugged. "But, uh, Miles. I wanted to get to this first thing but we got side-tracked. About Skye. You said you saw him back there at the 'dox, yeah?" Miles nodded. "I'm… not too sure how that works either. Maybe he gets Paradoxed back… but he might be stuck here."

Miles' tails stopped, "Silver, please tell me you're kidding."

Silver shrugged and shook his head, "The one thing, the _one_ thing we know on how reality works at a temporal level is that we _don't know_ _anything_. We label things but, when it comes down to it, things don't work that way. But this… my only guess is that, if he really doesn't go back, then this is one of those cases where the line splits. Yeah, he _is_ you, but he's not going to go back to _be_ you. And we don't know why it happens."

"You mean this has happened before."

"All theory, but we had to undo this sort of thing twice. When reality is destabilized, things that don't make logical sense happen. At least not logical to _us_. But, in any case, my point is this. Skye isn't you. Not anymore. It's good that we've named him differently, but you have to stop acting like he's a Mini-You because, for you, none of _this_ happened twice. That's… what I wanted to talk to you about."

"But what if he, like… breaks is arm or… gets a chip off his ear or something? Wouldn't that happen to me?"

"Tails, I don't know."

Miles scoffed, "You know, ignoring my lapse into the past, we've spent the last fifteen minutes arguing about how this all happened and how it all works out, but that's what it comes down to: Tails, I don't know. Not to mention this conversation started out so light-hearted too."

"Sometimes the funny just doesn't last long, sorry."

"Well, one way to…" he stood up slightly.

It took Silver a second to follow his glare.

Over in the playground, a small group of kids, about four, surrounded a fifth. The four making faces and clearly mocking their target.

Tails stood off to the side, slightly shrinking back through the playground equipment. Other than them, the playground was deserted. No parents, no one.

Silver glanced at Miles, "Give the word and I'll separate all of them."

The fifth stamped on the toe of one of the four. Then stamped on another. The other two backed up slightly while the first two hopped around.

"It's not her I'm worried about," Miles mumbled as the little white-furred lynx walked away from the group, making one last face at them before running up the slide. "She's an albino, red eyes and all. Wait, just wait, I think she's the one who started it."

"Distract them from Skye? What does her being… ah."

"Classic case of looking different. If she was looking out for Skye, I dunno. Was too busy angsting to notice."

"You have _all_ the reasons to angst, Miles. Every single one of them."

"Not now, Silver," Miles grumbled. Then, much lower, "It figures they look like Max."

"Like who?"

"Childhood… what does your magic timey whimy ball say about coincidences."

"Say nothing, ball does. But only force, there is."

Miles glared at Silver, "So learning about culture means watching movies all night? And _Vanilla_ put you up to it?" Silver tossed him an innocent look. "Nevermin—"

"Ho-ly shit. They're multiplying."

"Guess who," Miles muttered, standing up. "I'll handle it, keep an eye on the kids."

"Yes, pa."

"You're grounded when you get back, you know that?" He turned and walked over to the bulldog. Max was clearly amused that he had gotten a reaction. "Can I help you or are you here to exclaim profanities in front of children?"

"Well, ex-cuse me," Max started with a West Island drawl before forcing most of it from his voice. "I only noticed that there's not only one two-tailed _curiosity_, but two. Add that to the one running around causing trouble, and that's three. I am _so_ sorry if my shock offended you sir." He nodded to Silver over Miles' shoulder.

"Tactful," Miles scoffed. "Very, tactful. Can I ask you a question, if I tied my tails together, would that make you happy? Or are you just going to throw me off a cliff again." Miles smirked as Max blinked in sudden realization. "Whazzup. Max. Now. As it so happens, the little guy over there is my cousin. And I assume the four hassling the little girl are yours. Small world. Or is she hassling them?" Silver noticed that hit more of a nerve than it should have. "Now," Miles' voice dropped to mock Max's, "I ree-a-lize that we might not see eye ta eye on certain matters, but, fer the sake of our little cuzes, I say you keep on-a walkin' and I'll go back to talkin' with my friend here. Whadda say?"

"Oh, that's cute," Max said, the accent completely gone from his voice. "Real cute, Prowler."

"You know, I don't think I told anyone on that island my name, or is that just what you call everyone gifted with two tails?"

Max scoffed, "Just because you left the island doesn't mean you fell off the edge of the world."

"And I tried so hard," Miles sighed, shrugging. "I know this is hard to believe for you, but, turns out, the world is round. Who knew?"

"Listen," Max growled, "You wanted straight up conversation, I'm giving you one. Or are you too feral like your brother to actually comprehend what that actually means?"

"You know," Miles sighed casually, rubbing his brow. "What if I told you that, not only is he not my brother, that he's not feral either?"

Silver whistled, Miles glanced back to see him nod across the street. Leaning around Max, Miles' face hardened when the four boys had surrounded Tails. Max turned, then half-stepped aside.

"Well then," Max scoffed. "I bet my nephews can beat up your cousin."

"You're hitting lower by the second, Max," Miles warned, slowly drumming his fingers against his belt. One of the four shoved Tails to the ground. "Keep going and there's a foot at the bottom."

Max laughed loudly, "Now _that_, I'd like to see." Tails picked himself up, only to get pushed down again. Silver tapped the table loudly, Miles held up two fingers behind his back, _On my signal, not before_. Max continued, "Are you going to go help him?" He sneered at Miles, "All I mean is that, how's he going to learn to stand up for himself if you keep interfering?"

Miles grumbled to himself.

Tails was knocked down again. The little lynx girl ran over to them, kicking one of their shins and yelling at them. They pushed her away, one of the boys breaking off to scare her off.

Max scoffed then stood aside, "Go on. Step in, this has gone long enough."

Miles glared up to him, "If you wanted it to end, you'd make them stop."

"You're right."

Silver tapped the table. Louder than before.

Tails wasn't getting up this time.

"If you're not going to stop them, I am!" Silver called forward, pointing at the group.

Miles' ear twitched and he looked back, "No need, he's already out."

"What?"

One of the boys fell to the ground, an orange blur bouncing off his chest and over. A pair of feet dropped out and ran away up the slide, bouncing over to the top of the wooden playscape where the little lynx girl was yelling at the boys from.

"Spin dash," Miles said back to Silver. "Low-powered, not enough to hurt that bad." He looked back to Tails, he and the little lynx were blowing raspberries at the boys, the one Tails had hit had sat up but had his arms across his chest. "All the same, Max. It still kinda hurts."

Max glared at Miles then jaywalked across the deserted street. Whistling, he rallied his boys, picking up the hurt one in his arms, and walked through the playground onto the next block.

"Hey, Miles," Silver said, walking over. When the fox turned, Silver raised a fist between them, Miles covered in a soft blue glow. "_Never_ do that again. _Never _use a little kid in a personal grudge against someone. What the _hell_ were you thinking?"

Miles felt the glow crush him slightly and closed his eyes, "You think I wanted to do that? As much as I hate Max, he was right. How else would he learn how to defend himself?"

"Pitting him at the mercy of four older boys is _not_ how you show him how to defend himself! You teach him how to fight, you show him how to act, how to move, how not to show fear."

"Yes. I know. He's gotten the same speech from Sonic about four times."

"But how many times does it take for it to stick?" Silver swatted the air, letting the aura dissipate. "You said so yourself, the boys look like Max, a childhood bully that, if I understand correctly, he _just_ escaped from. You just sent him back into his worst nightmare just because you wanted to better yourself over Max."

"I know."

"If you know, why did you do it?"

Miles looked away and bit his lip, "…I… I don't know."

"Yes, exactly! You didn't _think_. _AGAIN_! If Max wasn't there and the boys went after Skye, you would have interfered, but instead, you let it happen." Silver sighed. "It might have ended favorably, but Miles. Come on. If you do _anything_ like that again, not only am I not going to wait for you, I'm going to throw you into the sun."

Silver huffed again, wiping his face. "And I say all of this to my best friend, so don't think I won't do it."

Miles slowly nodded, then laughed slightly, "Good. …good. Thanks, Silver."

Silver huffed. "Don't just stand there, apologize. Make sure he's alright! And for the love of God, _don't. Do it. Again._"

Miles nodded again and slowly walked off, catching the tail end of the walk light, and jogged over to the park. Tails hopped down from the playscape and ran over to Miles, all grins but with tears in his eyes. Miles kneeled down and held the little guy by the shoulders, then dusted him off as he started his apology. The lynx girl followed afterward.

Silver lulled his head back and sighed, then hung his head in his hands as he walked back to his seat where he promptly collapsed.

Blaze handed him an ice cream cone, "You handled that well."

Silver took it, scoffing, "No. No I didn't. All that went completely against how I learned how to fight. I mean, I knew what he was doing, and I knew that, in another second, he would have been over there. But how can I _not_ call him out on all that?" He sighed and licked his cone.

"Pointing out what's right, not what you believe in," Blaze nodded, "It shows the strength of your friendship with him." She bite into her ice cream.

"Yeah… I guess it—_Blaze wheretheheckdidyoucomefrom!?"_

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~I-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

**Yeah this is a long and dark chapter. I didn't want all of these events to happen one right after another, but logistics called for it and there wasn't a spot to stop the chapter. At least Silver's done with his expo-speak.**

**Welcome to Westopolis, everyone. Thanks for reading.**


	9. Diversions

**Hey, look! This story has a banner now! After two hours of drawing and another fighting with the site, Miles now glooms over every chapter. Hooray! If something's up with it, leave me a note and I'll fix it. I always keep thinking the image next to the summary is a _bit_ larger than it really is.**

**Anyway. Thanks for all the reviews everyone, and thanks for reading in advance.**

8

Diversions

Silver sighed and slumped back in his chair, "You know, you yell at us for doing that." Blaze merely scoffed. Silver shook his head, "Nevermind then. What have you been up to?"

"Amongst other things, I went to see the Memorial Park."

"Yeah, I walked by it on my way here too…." Silver nodded, "From what Vanilla told to me about it, the person who came up with the idea for that wall thing died from a relapse of whatever illness the Black Arms caused with their… whateverness." He sighed. " My point... What I mean is… They built it because its designer was _the_ last casualty of the incident. This town reeks of the dead; you can feel it in the air. Like every single thing here just won't let go of what happened... what? Vanilla said it started a little bit after you left here so... Two and a half years ago, right?"

"It is a feeling of honored remembrance," Blaze shook her head. "But yes, it does cloud the air here. …it certainly will be a very long time until it dissipates and the Park becomes the Memorial, not entire city itself." She examined her ice cream cone.

Silver realized that he had finished his without knowing. "…this isn't exactly the greatest vacation spot for you, is it?"

"I am doing fine, Silver," Blaze said, not looking away from her cone. "While the last few days certainly have not been exactly relaxing, they proved to have been a decent distraction." She sighed softly, "Though I agree, I'd rather be someplace else."

"So go," Silver shrugged. "I mean, I'm more than capable of keeping an eye on Miles."

"Has he asked you about what is going on back home?" Blaze asked, looking to him.

"If he was going to, we got sidetracked before I managed to talk to him about Skye. Why?"

"I talked to him on the way from his plane to the house," Blaze looked back to her cone, "He noticed that I was oddly quiet… moreso than usual." Silver nodded matter-of-factly. "It's strange how he knows me about as much as you do… then again, we've met twice before when he was Tails."

"So if he does ask…?"

"If you could not answer, I would be thankful," Blaze said quietly. "Tomorrow, he'll be in the middle of a maelstrom and I'd rather not have him worry about the hurricane a world away. On a different note," She looked at Silver, eyes dropping into a glare, "He mentioned that you two were caught up in a prank war…."

"Uh, heh," Silver smiled awkwardly. Blaze shook her head, waving her hand toward him.

"…I have talked to Vanilla about this," She said to her ice cream. "Just… to hear her viewpoint." She sighed, long and tired. "It's similar to the one I had taken… if it's what the people want, then my family should do their best to accommodate their wishes and…." She faded off, then scoffed. "Instead Father is compromising—I'm sorry."

"Blaze if you need to vent, go ahead," Silver said, leaning back in his chair. "Really. It won't be the first time today I've been put through a monologue. I should start charging—I should have gotten a psychology degree!" He snapped his fingers, snapped his chair forward and mimicked having a pen and notepad. Then sat up straight and mimed adjusting a pair of glasses. In a droning voice, "I do believe it's best if we start with your childhood, your Highness. If there is a problem, I do believe it would originate there."

Blaze sighed, "…I do believe it all started when I met the son of the chief guard. His telekinetic powers were just emerging and, at every opportunity, made a fool of himself whenever he tried used them to help. Our first meeting occurred when he somehow compromised the floor of the room he was in and fell through it, landing face-first into my breakfast." She glanced at Silver. He was glaring at her, frowning so much it was comical. She shrugged, "You wished to start at the beginning of my problems, so I did."

"Thanks. Your Majesty. We'll pick this up again in our next session."

"Very well. I hoped this has helped you to pry into my mind, doctor."

Silver scowled and scratched his ear.

Something streaked by above the street.

Silver darted to the curb, looking down the road. Blaze calmly followed. Miles joined them on the other side of the street, Skye hopping off the swings and jogging over.

"Hey, Miles," Silver said. "Was that what I thought it—" Another light blurred past, a large grey bird on a hover board.

"It's the Babylon Rogues," Miles scoffed. "Oh, _joy_. What are they doing here?" He looked up and down the street. "…where's the third?"

"What?"

"There's three of them—Jet, Storm, and Wave. We're missing the latter—" Miles cut himself off as another hoverboard blasted down the street. "And that's Jet again." He tossed a questioning glance to Silver then promptly laughed. "Oh, _that's_ what they're doing?"

Silver exchanged worried glances with Blaze as they crossed the street.

Miles looked up, "Silver, I need a favor."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"Fifteen minutes, that's all I need. The Rogues are running a—well, I call it a Shell Game though it's a bit of a Kansas City Shuffle." Silver glared. "Short version—ultimately Storm and Jet are posing as distractions for Wave to go and hack something or steal something. …I kinda had a bit of fun messing with them, leading them around on wild goose chases." Blaze glared. "I didn't put them up to it this time and I don't know what they're going for. This is Westopolis, even Eggman draws the line when it comes to this town. If it's nothing, I'll be back in ten."

"Miles, serious—"

On the other side of the park, another hover board cruised through, a female swallow riding it. Miles anxiously glanced between the two of them.

"Five minutes," Blaze butted in first.

Miles grinned, "_Thank_ you." He took a step. "Ah!" He motioned to the little lynx girl next to Skye, "Blaze, Silver, this is Nicole. Nikki, Blaze and Silver are good friends of mine."

"Blaze can shoot fireballs!" Skye added in. Nikki's face lit up.

"And don't worry about Silver," Miles said, walking backwards. "He's a jerk once you get past the niceties."

"Hey!" Silver called after him as the fox ran off. He looked down to the tykes in front of him, Skye was wrapped up in a one-sided conversation while Nikki glanced between him and the two adults. Then to Blaze. "What did you get me into?" Blaze slowly smirked, nodding to Miles. Silver's glare dropped. "…you think that the…?" Blaze nodded. Silver looked back at the corner where Miles had disappeared, scratching his neck. He shrugged. "Okay." He looked back down to the two kids.

"…and Silver has telekin… telekineesus!" Skye concluded.

"Can I see the fire?" Nikki asked Blaze, looking up to her with big ruby eyes. Due to her condition, Nikki looked more like a snow-tiger lacking most of its stripes than a lynx. Snow white everywhere except for a stripe under each eye and another running down between them to her nose, the little lynx ear-poofs, her shoulder-length black pig-tailed hair, and on her forearms and shins. She wore a purple t-shirt a size too large for her, khaki shorts, purple shoes, and a pair of dark grey gloves.

Blaze smiled softly, "Fire is not a toy to be played with."

"Awww," Both kids moaned. Nikki pouted, then turned to Skye, "I bet I can swing over the top of the swing-set before you can!"

"No you won't, I can do it faster!"

They darted off.

"Well, it's nice to see he made a friend here," Blaze said.

"Silver, push us!" Skye called over, legs flailing as he tried to get started with no success.

Silver glanced at Blaze, "Why am _I_ the babysitter?"

"Oh, stop complaining," Blaze smirked. "You can push them with your mind."

"Good point," He sighed and walked over. The two kids calling to hurry up. With a wave of his hand, the swings glowed and started on their own. The two kids cheered, cackling with laughter.

Blaze resided herself onto a bench near the sidewalk, giving her both a view of the playground and the corner Miles had disappeared around. Silver eventually relented himself to swing next to them, wincing when Nikki hit the point where the chains went slack and called out a warning to both of them _not_ to do that.

Slowly, she let herself smile. Over this playground, the morbid air had been chased away with the kids' laughter. After a few minutes, two little boys ran to the swings, jumping onto the ones on the other side of Silver urging him to push them as well. The glare that Silver gave Blaze was one of amused resentment.

Blaze laughed softly.

"Is she your little girl?" The old lady next to her on the bench asked. "Oh! I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to scare you.

Blaze slowly sat fully back down on the bench, sighing. Then did a mental double-take. "I'm sorry, can you say that again?"

"Oh, the sweet little girl on the swings," The old lady started, pulling out a pair of crocheting needles and a ball of yarn from her purse. "Is she your and the hedgehog's daughter?"

Blaze blinked. Slowly, she rubbed her cheek, looking slightly away, "Um. N-no. She's not… we're not… Silver and I are only friends—she w-was here for a little while before we were. W-we're looking after the little fox for a few minutes while his cousin runs an-an errand. …honestly, I'm not sure where her parents are."

The lady sighed, "I'm sorry. The two of you seemed like a couple and I just assumed… oh, listen to this old bag of bones go on." She leaned forward and adjusted her coke-goggles. "Oh! That _is_ Skye on the swings! So Myles is around, is he? Well then, it would be nice to talk to him again. He was so nice when I talked to him on the train a few days ago. Little Skye was asleep—how adorable he was, bless his little heart."

The old lady looked back to Blaze, "…are you a friend of Sonic's? I can't remember, but I think you look familiar."

"I was… I am a friend of his, yes," Blaze said carefully. "A… about two and a half years ago I helped put an end to one of Eggman's schemes."

"Oh yes! That was the one time where he had this weird doppelganger, hmm..." The old lady glanced at Blaze, "None of the newspapers could agree on where the odd fellow came from or what exactly was going on. One even said that he was from another world or planet or something. The thought," She wheezed a laugh.

Blaze slowly smiled, nodding as she glanced away.

The old lady frowned, "Excuse me for a second, but did you say that Myles was Skye's cousin? …he told me he was his brother."

Blaze nodded, shrugging slightly, "In all honesty, it is a very complicated story. …Miles himself isn't entirely sure how to tell it but… well." She frowned. "…he should be—"

_"GRANDMA, YOUR PHONE'S RING-A-DING-A-LINGING!" _The sound collapsed into children's laughter.

"Oh, there goes my phone," the old lady mumbled, reaching into her purse and pulling out the wailing device. "Probably my son wondering where me and the grandkids are." She glanced at Blaze, she was about three feet away from the bench, regaining her composure. The old lady simply smiled and answered it. "Hello…? I'm sorry, who is this?" Her face clouded in confusion. "…I'm… sitting right next to…." The lady looked to Blaze. "I don't understand how, but it's for you."

Blaze slowly took the phone, "Hello?"

"Blaze! It's me!" Miles voice scratched over, dropping out of a British accent mid-word. He quickly picked it back up. "I had to track down the closest cell to you—we've got an issue. Where's Silver?"

"Nearby. What is going on?"

"Remember when I said even Eggman wouldn't mess with this town?"

"You were wrong."

"I was wrong."


	10. Resurgence

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! And thanks for reading!**

9

Resurgence

Blaze looked to Silver, trying to get his attention with a worried glare. He was busy juggling four kids trying to take advantage of his powers by belly-flopping off the swings and get him to catch them on the way down.

"How wrong?" She asked.

"We're still trying to get numbers," Miles said with a weak scoff. "But just by looking out the window? Even _I_ won't go up against that many robots on my—Wave! _Move!_"

A burst of gunfire—Blaze shot up to her feet, "Miles? _Miles!_"

Silver immediately hopped off the swings and bolted through the air covered in his telekinetic aura. He spun and caught Skye as he tried to follow, sitting him back down in the swing seat and stopping the rest of the kids.

A roll of static. Then, "The console had a self-defense system. We're fine. Pinned down by a few turrets, but—"

"Bloody hell, _I knew it!_" A harsh female voice butted in. "Who—what the hell are you doing?"

"Miles?" Blaze asked, slightly confused.

"What's going on?" Silver asked as he landed, a bit of a demanding tone in his voice. He stuck his ear to the phone.

"…it seems my hologram got knocked off," He said before scoffing. In his normal voice, "Hello, Wave. Nice to see you too. Anyway, Blaze. That was Silver I heard, right? Good. I sent word out to the usual Chicken Littles… why am I using that analogy with you—you'll be hearing sirens soon."

"Espio is here as well…?" Blaze started said as much to herself as to Silver and Miles. The chameleon was rushing down the street towards them.

Miles sighed, relieved, "Good, they passed word to him—Vector's somewhere but it's ultimately just us here in Westop—hey-hey_heyHEY!_ Get back here!"

"Oof! Listen foxboy!" Wave's voice crackled through the phone. "We don't have time to plan here! We wait, and those robots are going to tear the place apart!"

"You go out there and you'll be pillow-stuffing."

"Hands _off!_ Or _I'll_ make _you _into a scarf, shorty!"

"I'm not exactly shor—how do you know I'm Tails?" Miles said in confusion. He groaned. "I _just_ told you, didn't I?"

"Tch! As if there's any other fox in the world with two tails that—what the _hell_ happened to you?"

"_Later._ Wave."

"The hell with later! Those two tails are _not_ connected to—what the frack happened?"

Blaze exchanged glances with Silver.

"…he's attacking again… isn't he?" The old lady said from the bench. The pensive looks on the two's faces was all she needed. She dropped her crocheting and put her face in her hands, "Oh lord…."

"Wait—you got caught up in that temporal anomaly we detected a few days back, didn't you?!" Wave stabbed on the other end of the phone.

"Whatever is happening, they are leaderless," Espio said, stopping in front of them. "Eggman can't be at the helm this time." He glanced to Silver and Blaze, "Vector is at the hospital—not injured, there on a case. He'll be staying there to defend it in case the worst comes to pass. Unlike the rest of us, he's best if he stays in one place. Charmy's elsewhere—Station Square Library doing research. Don't ask how we got him to."

Espio of the Chaotix was the team's espionage and information agent. Bolstered by his ninja training and his Chameleon invisibility, the fact that he was purple was mitigated. His golden eyes darted between Blaze, Silver, the old lady, and the kids. Skye was standing halfway to them, Nikki was at the swing set, glancing back to the other two on their swings with words Espio couldn't make out.

"Why isn't he?"

Blaze, Espio, and Silver exchanged glances.

"How did you guys detect—you figured out what I was building. Where did you get the blueprints…." Miles trailed off, sighing.

"It's complicated," Blaze assured.

"He's indisposed," Espio abbreviated.

"It was easier to fix all the flaws in the plan than to steal it. And it was _easy_ to steal it too. The way you had it? Tch, some time machine that was."

"Well, you see. Eggman is— wait a second," Silver grabbed the phone. "I heard time machine. Who said time machine?"

"Who the hell is that?"

"Silver. He's basically a time cop."

"If anyone builds a time machine—and I don't care who it is—this time cop will be the one making a fur coat with feather insulation. Rule number one of time machines—_you don't build them! _Bad stuff happens! Bad stuff that does bad things that I have bad headaches trying to fix!"

Espio ignored him and looked down to the lady, "Emergency response is preparing to move; we'll be hearing the alarm in a few minutes. If you can take the children to shelter, we can make sure that, whatever happens,_ nothing_ will harm this town."

The old lady slowly nodded and grabbed her purse, abandoning her crocheting, and hurried over to the swings.

"Blaze, if I may," Espio held his hand out for the phone. She gave it to him. "You're on speaker, Tails."

"So Silver," Wave butted in. "Don't you have a DeLorean to ticket—mmf!"

Miles sighed, "No time to plan, but time to berate. Eh, Wave?"

"Mmt! _Off!_ How bout I muzzle you—?"

"Wave, shut up." Then, more directly to the phone, "From what we saw before the terminal locked down, there's three bays under the city, each chocked full of robots, each with their own terminal to shut them all down. Now, Wave here activated them—"

"On accident!"

"…from this one, but we can't shut them all down from here and we're pinned by turrets right now. Eggman wasn't messing around when he built this place—I think he took a few notes from Nega so _be careful_. I can only assume the others have similar countermeasures."

"Can you deactivate the turrets at least?" Silver asked.

"With where they are, I think I can jam them. But I need my phone to do that so I'll wrap this up fast. Espio! Congrats! You know who signed you up for hacking this time around! As for the other, Blaze, Silver, between the two of you a rather large, scary platoon of deadly robots really doesn't stand a chance. Wave, you saw where they… what are you doing?"

"More than you! Gimmie!"

The phone crackled with static as the other end was grabbed.

"Oh, right. Your little computer thingie. The phone's on speaker."

"Whatever. I was cloning the data as I hacked it… schematics. A lot of excavation had to be done to decontaminate the area from the Black Arms creep. Eggman, of course, had his robots start the work before anyone else could and put these things in then…." Her voice lost the matter-of-factness. "_…shit._ The access hatches—they're connected _directly_ to the shelters—W, B, and J. They're going to wait until the city takes refuge then rip straight through them all."

"We didn't go through a bunker to get here."

"Duh, we went in the back way, foxbreath. Through the robot's hangers. The shelters have alarms on them so no one messes with them. The point is! He's going for total destruction this time. A massacre for the world to remember him by. They're on a timer—I didn't activate them. A timer. That Eggman had to reset every so often."

"So how much time is left?" Skye's voice called out. Espio, Blaze, and Silver turned to see the little kit standing behind them.

"Who the frack—lemme guess, that's Gold."

"That's Skye, my six year old cousin," Miles' voice glared. He sighed. "Skye, this is a computer, not a plane—calculators, not power tools! And Blaze on how Nega builds his robots and add on a few more laser guns and a flame thrower. Maybe a buzz saw. …Wave, is that really a _sandwich maker_?"

"Walks, talks, bakes its own bread, has all the all the fixings, and kills with all of them. And I'm being serious over there."

"I can still help!" Skye said determinedly, then shrunk slightly under the eyes of the adults. He sniffed, rolled his shoulders, and stood straight again. "I really can!"

Miles sighed, "…okay. Fine. Just stay _sa—_" He cut himself off. "They're activating—but they won't mobilize until a little later. Wave, where's the access hatches in the other two bunkers?"

"The-the bottommost storage level. Eggman planted a crate that acted as a sealed doorway in the far right-back corner of each. There's an access pad under a false panel that opens them but I can't find the—"

"Zero-six-eight-five-E-G-G-five in bunkers B and J. If that doesn't work, make your own entry."

Wave scoffed, "How do you—"

"Robotnik was reusing codes from the Flying Battery at about the time he built these… we have to go."

The phone crackled with static, then fell silent. A second later the klaxons started to blare.

* * *

><p>"Three, two, one. Jammed—go!"<p>

Miles more threw Wave over to the command console than pushed her, he himself running to the pillar that held one of the two turrets. He pulled a knife out of his boot, more like a small dagger, and stabbed through the metal plating below the turret at the seam, prying it away from the wall.

"How'zit looking over there, Wave?"

Wave scowled back over her shoulder, blinking in surprise when she saw the knife, "It locked itself again. The password isn't working—you don't know this one, do you?"

"Try 'ihatethathedgehog'—one word, all lowercase, hedgehog misspelled with a lowercase 'A' after the 'H' just to throw us off. Classic Robotnik."

"I know that one," Wave scoffed. "Didn't work."

Miles stabbed his knife into the pillar then pulled off the rest of the panel. He glanced back, "When did you figure—ah, right. The first time I set you guys to work."

The purple swallow sneered, her icy blue eyes glaring daggers at Miles. Even with counting everyone he met in the six extra years, the brains of the Babylon Rogues was the only person Miles knew that could glare with her entire body. Shoulders locked half-towards him, arms crossed over her white tube-top, red shoes tapping. She was also the only bird who could effectively make a sneer more menacing with a beak than with a muzzle full of fangs. Even her two long bands of feather-hair seemed to writhe with sheer annoyance in the slight draft.

Miles grinned and nodded, turning to what was behind the panel, "I guess you're not too happy about all that."

"Ya think," She seethed, then snorted at him. "The code. Gimmie."

"Listen—it could be _any_ code from in the Flying Battery-or-or even the second Death Egg. There's about two hundred of them and it'll be faster for your little necklace to crack the code on its own then to—" He pulled a wire out from inside the pillar. He froze for a second, then glanced around the room. Then moved the barrel of the turret to point away from Wave. "Either this is going to fire when I pull the wire or when I turn the jammer off. Just to let you know."

Wave groaned, "You're f—" She flinched as the turret fired twice, then glowered. "And you _almost forgot to aim it away!?"_

"Wave. Try Six-Two-Three-Four-E-G-G-Four," Miles sighed, pulling his knife out of the wall and moving towards the other turret. "Was the password to the Death Egg's—"

"Didn't work. How the hell can you remember all that? _What the hell happened to you_?"

Miles took two steps backwards, stopping when he was next to her. He was an inch taller than her.

He nodded at her, politely, but fatigued, "I didn't fall down the rabbit hole; it swallowed me whole and spat me out six years in the past. Stuff. Happened." He sighed. "Can we leave it at that, Wave? Please? This town's seen enough strife to last for its lifetime. I know, I was here and stayed here for the entire fiasco. And I'll be damned if it gets destroyed again." he nodded to the console. "Your thing's found the code." He laughed.

"Should have guessed that one. It's…" his eyes went distant for a second. "…the codes to the third deck's Master Capsule lock. At least for the fifth Capsule bay—one, two, three—yeah fifth door from the lift, across from the Second Pacification Room's fourth door." He shook his head. Wave was looking at him, looking at him with a confused and incredulous look. "Paradoxes are not nice." Miles walked back to the other turret and stabbed his knife in.

Wave shook her head and let her hands fly over the console's keyboard. "So what," She said after a minute. "Besides manipulating us to go on scavenger hunts for parts for a time machine—how'd that turn out?"

"Time machine was a dimension traveler, got sent to Silver and Blaze's world."

"Oh," Wave said, disappointed. "Alistair kinda disappeared after the last job; we hoped it went nuke on him. I should have known he was really you because of how terrible the plans were."

"It kinda did," Miles pulled the panel off and started working inside the pillar. "At least you know why I wanted to build one now. Ended up just… taking the long road back."

"Tch. With how crappy your life was, I bet it was better the second time."

"…I'm going to ignore that one—or do you say that because I met with you more often as Alistair the Eagle rather than Tails the shrimp?"

"Don't flatter yourself, foxbreath. You'd have to hide that mug of yours with a much better hologram for any girl with some sense to like it."

"Pulling the wire."

Wave was drowned out by the turret firing again.

"Enough Wave," Miles said sternly, putting the knife away. He pulled out his phone and touched the screen. "There are three thousand robots, two hundred airplanes, and two _sandwich makers_ out there that's going to tear the city up. And that's just what's in this bay. What's the hold-up?"

"I can't find the master switch," Wave said. "Everything's hidden under encryption—each battalion out there has their own deactivation code and there's like, twelve of them." She looked to Miles, eyes set in a questioning half-glare.

"He always used new codes for the robots, don't look at me on that one."

"Not that. …you don't hear that, big-ears?"

"Hear…" He blinked, said big ears flaring. "…high-pitched whine?"

"That. What is that?"

The two looked around the room, the sound steadily getting louder. They looked at the two turrets.

"That was the wrong wire," Miles muttered, then looked to Wave. "Sorry about this!" He tackled her to the ground.

"What—?" She cut herself off and braced herself.

…after a minute, she opened an eye to see the back of Miles' ear. With a bit of effort, she reached up and yanked it out of the way, glaring into his eye and glancing at the holographic shield around them. "It stopped. Can you _get off_ or is it just on a delay?"

Exploding fire and shrapnel was the answer.


End file.
